The Wilderness Is Dangerous
by redcheese
Summary: Darling Daddy Kurosaki decides to have family bonding sessions at their very, very underused summer house at Lake Kataguchi, just on the outskirts of Karakura Town. Somehow, Rukia is included. Chaos, and maybe something else, ensues.
1. The Kurosaki Club Sandwich

Hurrah, a new fic. My exams are over and I'm as free as Aizen is at the moment. Thus I present to you readers another story for you to read. It's set after Chapter 199 of Bleach manga, when Rukia sort of "moved in". It's not related in any way to _Ichigo Has A Goddamn Hostel Room!_, and there's no obvious ichiruki (yet). Hope you enjoy this one as well.

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 1: The Kurosaki Club Sandwich**

**Wednesday, 11 July**

The holidays in the Kurosaki household were always peaceful.

Karin and Yuzu observed their big brother dodge their father's attacks serenely from the dinner table, while Rukia seated herself.

"_WUMPH! DODGE DADDY'S DYNAMITE KICK!!"_

Karin picked up her rice bowl, clearly indifferent to the disturbing display of domestic violence happening in her house.

"_STOP HITTING ME, YOU BASTARD!"_

"More rice, Yuzu."

Yuzu spooned the rice from the rice cooker cheerfully, and turned to Rukia.

"_AH, MY SON, YOUR SKILLS HAVE DEFINITELY IMPROVED!! BUT YOU WON'T DODGE THIS PRO KARAT-ARRGHHHHH"_

"Rukia-san, here's your rice. Today I made miso soup, steamed egg and fried prawns! They ran out of beef at the market, so that's all I could come up with."

Rukia grinned. Karin and Yuzu were really nice girls, and Ichigo's dad was quite a funny guy anyway. She used a pair of chopsticks to seize a prawn, and bit down on it with gusto.

"_GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!"_

"Your cooking's great, Yuzu, as usual!"

Yuzu smiled happily, and proceeded to load Rukia's bowl with prawns.

"_GIVE YOUR DEFEATED DADDY A BEAR HUG!"_

Karin studied Rukia in between mouthfuls.

"So, Rukia-san, did Ichi-nii get into trouble today?"

"_DON'T DO THAT, THAT'S DISGUSTING!"_

Rukia shook her head.

"He's actually a rather attentive student, if you ask me. Hands his work up on time and

stuff like that."

"_GIVE YOUR FATHER A KISS!!"_

Yuzu smiled proudly, while Karin attempted (and failed) to conceal her own pride with a grimace.

"Ichi-nii's a really cool guy, right Rukia-san?"

"_OH MY GOD, STOP SLOBBERING ON ME!!"_

Rukia smiled softly, a small one.

"You can say that."

---

A rather injured looking Isshin seated himself gingerly at the head of the table, holding an ice pack to a bruise that appeared to be blossoming out from behind his eye.

Ichigo, on the other hand, appeared to be completely unharmed. Apart from his deepened scowl, he seemed to be all right.

Karin put down her chopsticks and yawned widely, while Yuzu shut the rice cooker and turned it off.

Rukia caught Ichigo's eye and grinned. He gave a vague shrug, and returned to picking at the remaining grains of rice in his bowl aimlessly.

She sighed.

The silence was broken by none other than Isshin himself.

"TEAM! I have a wonderful idea!"

Karin muttered under her breath, "_I don't even want to know what it is._"

Isshin raised a hand, but winced, due to yet another injury. Needless to say, he was not deterred the slightest by Ichigo and Karin's glares.

"We shall go for a family bonding trip!"

"WHAT?!"

Ichigo and Karin's reactions were identical. Both of their eyes widened, and both of them looked very, very terrified at this 'idea' of their father's.

Rukia blinked, amused.

Only Yuzu asked the most sensible question.

"Where to, Daddy?"

Isshin threw out his arms, wincing again, and proclaimed loudly, "At our summer house alongside Lake Kataguchi! We haven't been there ever, thus tomorrow we shall go there to have family bonding activities!"

Karin narrowed her eyes, so much that Rukia thought she resembled a miniature female black-haired Ichigo. The real Ichigo, on the other hand, looked very much shocked.

Isshin clapped his hands to his face and attempted to pout (he failed).

"It'll be fun! The Kurosaki summer house will never let you down, my darling children, with the trees and the birds, I promise you with my greatest honour tha-"

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched. Once his dad came up with mad ideas like this, he'd never let it go.

Oh bother. There was no other option.

He turned to his sisters, and saw the same sentiments mirrored right back at him.

He turned to Rukia, but realized that she wasn't part of his family, that she wasn't his sister. She grinned at him, and he felt a strange whooping feeling at the pit of his stomach, but he ignored it.

_Time of the month, huh, Kurosaki?_

Ishida was seriously a freaky guy.

Putting that aside, he turned back to his wide-eyed father.

"All right Dad, we'll go."

His father's demented whoops of joy and triumph would haunt his nightmares forever, he was sure of it.

---

Ichigo realized that Isshin's idea of a "_**family**_ trip to Lake Kataguchi" included Rukia after all.

Well, not as though he had any sort of complaint to make.

"Ichigo, the lake is safe to swim in, right?"

"I would suppose so. But someone as small you would probably be eaten by a GUPPY."

"Hey!"

Ichigo stuck out his tongue and waggled it at an indignant Rukia.

"Well, uh, erm, you, BEAVERS WILL CARRY YOU OFF TO MAKE DAMS WITH YOU."

"…you know what a beaver is?"

"Yes, orange twig, I do."

"…I am not an orange twig, Rukia. You, on the other hand, are a bloodsucking tic."

"I AM NOT A TIC, ICHIGO!!!"

So on and so forth. Apart from all these little squabbles, which he found rather funny on a whole, they were really the best of friends.

Rukia thought so too. He didn't look scary, unlike his classmate's comment about his perpetual scowl. She, on the other hand, thought he looked quite retarded like that.

She had no complaints regarding Ichigo either.

After all, he knew how to pack a week's worth of clothes into a suitcase without splitting the seams. That, was a very rare quality in a shinigami, Rukia mused.

Renji probably didn't even know what a suitcase was in the first place.

---

**Thursday, 12 July**

Ichigo raised an obscenely large Chappy doll above his head, his jaw set and forehead creased in determination.

"Ichigo, give it back! I need Chappy to sleep peacefully at night!"

"…no, Rukia, you do not."

"Freaking give it back!"

"Freaking no way!"

"If you don't give it back, I will inflict damage to your nether regions!"

"Wait, what? No! Get away!"

"Give. Chappy. Here."

"Keep your knee away from me!"

"Not until you release Chappy."

Ichigo was in the middle of contemplating whether to protect his pride and joy, or to risk it for the sake of protecting Rukia from the evils of Chappy, when an orange lion-like plushie tornado burst out of the cupboard.

"Nee-san! You can bring me instead, you can hold me to your tiny little boso-"

Rukia delivered a flying punch smoothly to Kon's cotton face, and Ichigo almost felt sorry for it as the mod-soul flopped pathetically back into the closet, making crying noises.

"Rukia, it won't fit into your suitcase."

"Yes, it will!"

"No, it won't. _I _packed your depraved suitcase for you, therefore _I _know for sure what would fit in and what wouldn't!"

"You're just biased, Ichigo."

Rukia then proceeded to try to fit the huge Chappy doll into the depths of her fully packed suitcase.

After a few fevered and failed attempts, Rukia conceded defeat, but not before she hurled the Chappy doll at Ichigo's face. A full blown pillow fight would have erupted if not for Isshin barging in on the pretense of making sure that they were done with packing.

"Rukiaaaaa-san! Could you go downstairs to help Yuzu make the Kurosaki Club Sandwiches?"

Rukia nodded and left the room behind Isshin with a well aimed kick at Ichigo's shin.

Ichigo was not amused. But he got over it.

He'd been almost eaten by giant Fish-faces and Grand Fishers, he'd been attacked by a whole load of crazed Shinigami, and not to mention freaking Senbonzakura-ed by the high and mighty bastard of all bastards.

A kick to the shin was nothing, really.

He got up, zipped Rukia's suitcase and set it on the ground.

Helping Rukia pack her suitcase was fine, but the only problem was coming into contact with the diabolical category of clothing called the _brassiere_. At least Rukia had managed to sense his obvious discomfort and shift the offending garments elsewhere.

His eyes would never be the same again.

Enough said. His face had burned so much then, and he didn't feel like thinking back to that horribly embarrassing situation.

Ichigo set the suitcase aside and, after finding his errant 'Nice Vibe' shirt, finished packing his own luggage. He cleared up his bed, tucking the bed sheets into the sides neatly, and made his way over to his wardrobe.

Ichigo slid the door open, and was immediately accosted by a deranged cotton orange lion.

"ICHIGOO! WHAT DID YOU TO DO NEE-SAN TO MAKE HER HATE ME LIKE THIS?!!?"

Ichigo started to slide the door shut again, grimacing, but Kon managed to slip out and landed on the floor with a soft thump.

"You're going away, huh, Ichigo? What about me, huh? The greatest Kon-sama, abandoned in this crummy house?"

Ichigo sighed.

"I wouldn't let you stay here in the first place. You'd probably leave your orange plushie fur all over the place."

Kon put his plushie hands on his plushie hips and scowled the worst scowl a plushie lion could ever deliver.

"So, you're going to toss Kon-sama outside? Good, do that. Then I can search for all the bosoms in the world to lean agains-"

Ichigo stretched out a hand, and grabbed the plushie. He grinned sardonically, and reached for his cell phone, dialing a number that Kon couldn't see.

Kon feared for his life.

"Hello, Urahara? Could you send Jinta here for a while, I have something that I need him to help me take care for a week or so…"

Kon's black lion plushie eyes widened in horror, and his scream resonated off the walls of Ichigo's room.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Ichigo just managed to stuff Kon into a shoe box and hurl it under his bed, when the whole family (except Rukia) barged into his room to find out why Ichi-nii/my darling son had screamed so loudly.

---

Rukia watched in confusion as Ichigo handed a shoebox, which was tied with many, many rubber bands, to Urahara's red haired assistant.

The shoebox appeared to be…struggling.

Jinta took the shoebox, and was about to say something when he caught sight of Yuzu dragging a bag down into the living room, who waved happily to him.

He turned as red as his hair, waved back in a fluster and dashed off.

As Rukia followed Ichigo up to his room to get the suitcases down, she poked him in the shoulder questioningly.

"Kon."

Comprehension dawned.

"I see."

"I'm sure Jinta would be pleased to have Kon."

"Agreed."

---

At 10 in the morning, Ichigo, Rukia, Karin and Yuzu had gathered on the front lawn, waiting for Isshin's _grand arrival_. He had actually rented a car for the road trip to Lake Kataguchi, which showed how hyped up he was about the whole thing.

Ichigo didn't have the heart to beat Isshin down.

The four of them were quite a sight, each of them carrying their own luggage, all lined up next to the gate.

Ichigo had seated himself down on top of his bag, and Rukia looked very much like him, perched on her own luggage was well.

Karin and Yuzu shared one bag, which Karin was holding by the handle while Yuzu carried the cooler filled with "Kurosaki Club Sandwiches".

They were all thankful that Yuzu had managed to persuade Isshin that she'd be better off making the sandwiches than him.

Ichigo didn't really feel like spending his time at Lake Kataguchi in the outhouse.

When Isshin had, at last, pulled up 'fashionably late' (quote him) in the rental car, they loaded up and clambered in with much haste.

Karin was given the front seat of honour as Ichigo didn't feel like reading any maps that day.

So, Isshin started up the engine again, and they were off, with Yuzu enthusiastically distributing a Kurosaki Club Sandwich to everyone.

---

Ichigo blinked furiously and dug out a work of Shakespeare to immerse himself in when Rukia fell asleep on his shoulder.

Hello, Lake Kataguchi.

_to be continuedz. _

I'm expecting to have about 6+ chapters. the number is ever changing, so don't count on it too much. R&R please (:

oh yes, and I couldn't resist being evil to Kon. what a perv.

;redcheese


	2. Road Trip

Yay, an update for this darling fanfic. Enjoy.

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous  
Chapter 2: Road Trip**

The passengers in the black SUV quickly discovered that their driver could not drive.

"DON'T CUT OVER INTO THE OTHER LANE, DAMN YOU!!"

Better drivers whizzed past the swerving vehicle, blasting their horns.

"AH, MY SON WISHES TO TAKE THE WHEEL, DOESN'T HE?"

"NO HE DOESN'T! NO HE DOESN'T!"

Rukia decided not to try to calm the very irate Ichigo, and instead, turned to Yuzu.

Yuzu was asleep, wearing a-

Bright yellow helmet on her head?

Rukia blinked. Now, where had _that _come from?

She was impressed that Yuzu could fall asleep in these harsh conditions anyway.

"YOU STUPID OLD CRAP, WHO THE HELL GAVE YOU YOUR LICENSE?!"

"MY SON HAS VERY INTERESTING WAYS OF EXPRESSING HIS DEEP LOVE AND AFFECTION FOR HIS MOST HONORED FA-"

Karin folded her arms, and gave her father the frostiest glare that a ten year old could ever give.

"Dad, you're driving on the wrong lane."

There was silence for a long, long minute.

Then-

"OH MY GOD, THERE'S A FREAKING TRUCK COMING OUR WA-"

"WHAT DO I DO, MY CHILDREN, WHAT DO I DO?!"

Karin's eyebrow twitched.

"You drive to the opposite lane, Dad."

Ichigo fastened his seatbelt. Shinigami or not, he didn't feel like dying at the moment.

"HOW DO YOU DRIVE TO THE OPPOSITE LANE, MY CHILD?!"

"GODDAMN BASTARD, TURN THE STEERING WHEEL TO THE LEFT A BIT!!"

Rukia took a bite out of her Kurosaki Club Sandwich. It had ham, lettuce, a slice of tomato and cucumber, and it was good. She tried to envision Nii-sama in the kitchen with an apron, making a Kuchiki Club Sandwich.

Rukia giggled. But still, she could dream, couldn't she.

The incoming truck blared its horns and flashed its headlights furiously, and Isshin started crying.

"OH MASAKI, WE ARE COMING TO JOIN YOU NOW!!"

Ichigo snarled, the vein in his temple threatening to burst at any moment.

"IF YOU WANT TO DIE, DON'T DRAG ALL OF US INTO IT!!!"

He reached forward from the back seat and yanked the steering wheel to the left. The car followed and they slid back onto the correct lane just as the truck lumbered past, the driver shaking his fist furiously at them.

Ichigo slumped back in-between Yuzu and Rukia, glowering.

Rukia patted his knee consolingly, and he humphed good-naturedly.

---

Isshin started singing snatches of an obscure song completely off key, which prompted Karin to pull out her mp3 player.

The Kurosaki Club Sandwiches had all mysteriously disappeared after a while, thanks to efforts from Rukia, Karin and Isshin.

Ichigo tossed _Hamlet _aside. Not even Shakespeare-san could save his ass from the perpetual boredom that arose during road trips.

He turned to his left. Yuzu was fast asleep, and she had removed that ridiculous helmet that the Kanonji bastard had bestowed upon her.

He felt a slight pressure on his right shoulder.

"Yes?"

Rukia had apparently discovered the abandoned novel, _Hamlet_.

"Is it good?"

"I suppose it is."

She settled herself against the car seat with the book in hand and started reading, her left shoulder _just _a little too close to his.

---

After about half an hour of Isshin's horrible singing, Karin decided to whack her beloved father with an umbrella, which quelled him into a sulky silence that was accompanied by mumblings of his "daughters undergoing puberty".

Ichigo reveled in the sweet sound of silence.

And then-

Rukia fell asleep on his shoulder.

_Hamlet _was apparently a tad too boring for her, he thought, his face heating up against his own will. He would never admit, though, that the weight of her head on his shoulder seemed to be _strangely comforting._

Ichigo decided not to wonder why.

After all, ignorance was bliss.

Rukia made a random noise that sounded something like "nyagh" and shifted a little in her sleep, her hand reaching for something in the empty space front of her.

Cute, but terrifying at the same time.

Ichigo felt like he had been forcibly shoved into a dilemma. As far as he was concerned, he had two equally undesirable options. He could push her away; wake her up in the process and end up getting screwed for waking her up so violently (he could hear her yelling at him at the moment). Or, he could sit there and be _comforted _by the weight of her on his shoulder.

But when she woke up, he'd get screwed anyway for not waking her up in the first place.

Choices, choices. Girls were fickle creatures, and being dead somehow made Rukia even worse.

Yuzu was fast asleep, and he didn't feel like letting Yuzu know that Rukia-san fell asleep on Onii-chan's shoulder. Ichigo knew his sisters were wonderful (apart from the crazy bastard of a father), and he did talk to them sometimes.

But there were some things that you didn't want to tell anyone.

And this was one of those some things.

Ichigo looked around frantically. Yuzu was deep in slumber-land, with no hope of being woken with a prod to the shoulder.

He craned his neck forward as much as he dared. Karin was fast asleep as well, earphones buried snugly in her ears.

Ichigo snarled inwardly.

He refused to ask his crazy dad for any sort of help, even if he was hanging off the cliff by one finger with Zaraki and Byakuya waiting below to shave every bit of orange hair off from his head.

…Maybe he'd ask for help if they really were serious about shaving him bald, but he'd cross that bridge if he ever came to it.

The bridge right in front of him at the moment was a painful, painful one that he had to concentrate on.

---

_Rukia was standing on a rock in the middle of a lake._

_The water was a clear, beautiful shade of blue and she could see fish feeding at the place where the rock met the water._

_Minnows? Guppies? _

_She leaned over the edge of the rock and made a grab at the silvery fish, but they eluded her, sending ripples dancing about the water's surface. Rukia laughed, and lay back against the warm rock._

_The rock felt so warm, so solid, as she felt the sun's rays enveloping her with their warmth, like arms._

_Whose arms?_

_She felt cold all of a sudden._

_Rukia sat up, and she was crouched on the leafy forest floor, with Kaien-dono's arms around her. _

_His arms, cold and deathly limp, held her no more._

_Shirayuki through his chest, through Kaien-dono's chest, Kaien-dono's blood on her face, on her hands, her clothes and Rukia felt like vomiting. Maybe she did, she didn't know, she didn't register anything. Shut her eyes to block everything out and away-_

_She felt rain. Trickles at first, followed by fat, unforgiving drops, mingling with her tears, beating down hard on her back and face._

_Rukia heard him._

"_Rukia!" _

_She heard a guttural roar, and she tried to open her eyes, but her lids felt heavy, like stone, and she could see nothing but blackness. She tried to call out for him, but her mouth felt so leaden and so sick that she couldn't._

"_Rukia!"_

_A screech, a thud, a heart-splitting crash. There was his yelling, all around, and she felt herself falling forward, her stomach whirling. _

"_RUKIA!!"_

Rukia's eyes snapped open, and the only thing she registered was grass, and something that stank, and something cold and wet rolling down her cheeks.

"Ich-"

An upsurge of vomit took her. She felt herself falling again, only to be caught by the waist, inches from the ground. Rukia vaguely felt someone soothing her back.

Her vision melted away and turned to black, and she felt nothing.

---

_That was freaking scary_, Ichigo thought.

Rukia was lying on the car's back seats, sleeping, her skin pale and pasty.

Just as he decided to shove her way from his shoulder, disguised as a bid to wake her up, she started crying, waking Yuzu and Karin up.

Rukia, crying! That alone had almost scared his soul out, but when he realized that she was still asleep _and _crying, it freaked him out even more.

He'd tried to wake her up by pouring some water on her face (that bastard of a father's suggestion), but it apparently made her sobbing even worse.

When Isshin managed to find _and_ park the car in a parking space of some fast food restaurant (screwing the tires and knocking over a small dumpster), Rukia had started to turn even paler and she looked a hell lot like she was going to throw up.

Ichigo got her out of the car and next to the drain in three seconds flat, and thank Zaraki that he managed it in time.

It was as though she threw up five bucketfuls, not to mention that she was crying non-stop.

For Yuzu to cry was perfectly normal. For Orihime to cry was also perfectly normal. For Rukia to cry was just terrifying in all the wrong ways.

A killer of a dream she must have had, Ichigo thought.

He reached forward with a tissue to wipe the sweat away from her forehead, but was interrupted by a knock on the car window.

Karin stood there with two huge bottles of water.

"Ichi-nii, our crazy father said she needs to be hydrated with these while we buy lunch."

Ichigo took the water.

"He's the doctor, so I suppose we'd better listen to him."

Karin made to turn away, but she stopped.

"Ichi-nii?"

He looked up, in the middle of unscrewing the bottle-cap.

"Take care of Rukia-san, will you?"

Ichigo gave his younger sister a rare smile.

"Of course I will, Karin."

---

The first thing Rukia saw when she opened her eyes was Ichigo's face.

"GAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes heavenwards.

"You're definitely okay."

Yet, he watched her carefully as she sat up, wiping her brow with a sleeve.

"Nightmare?"

Rukia rubbed at her eyes, coughing a little.

"You think?"

Ichigo shrugged.

"You looked really bad, I was really wor-, I meant, you scared the hell out of me with your crying."

"WHAT?"

"What what?"

"…I cried?"

"Oh yes you did, you little crybaby."

"Come on, don't tease me about it!"

Rukia's gaze dropped, and Ichigo had to stop himself from reaching out to her.

_What the hell, Ichigo?_

"It was pretty bad."

Ichigo patted her head, and his hand stayed on her hair a little longer than it was supposed to. He tore it away and gave her the bottle of water.

"Drink this. You threw up enough to fill Matsumoto's sake consumption five times with some left over, not counting how much you cried."

Rukia glared at him, and drank.

Ichigo watched in horror as she finished both one litre bottles in one go, wiped her mouth, looked at him quizzically and asked, "What?"

He blinked, and shook his head, grinning to himself.

"Nothing."

"What're you grinning about?"

"Wha-? No-othing!"

"Tell me!"

"I…I…was just wondering how you could drink so much!"

Rukia stared at him for a while, and shrugged.

"In Rukongai, when I was just a soul without spirit power, all we needed was water to get by."

"What the hell, no food?"

She shook her head, with such seriousness that he felt like laughing at her, but he didn't.

"Food was for the rich ones with spirit power. Those who were poor, those who had nothing, had to get by on water."

"…Soul Society is one screwed up place."

Rukia shrugged again, and grinned.

"If that's how you see it, Ichigo."

He scratched his head, thrown off balance by the random smile she gave him. He preferred her happy than her crying her ass off, to tell the truth.

"What was your dream about?"

Rukia shifted in her seat uncomfortably, the happiness dissipating away.

"Scary things."

"Want to tell me about it?"

"Can I refuse?"

"'Course you can."

If she didn't want to tell him now, it was perfectly fine with him. Even if it did strike him odd for her not to tell him about something as trivial as a dream, he moved on.

As his thoughts had stated, it was _trivial, just a dream._

Stuff like this didn't matter to him, Ichigo said to himself firmly.

Or did it?

---

"ICHIGOOOOOO!!! IS MY DARRLINGGG DAUGHTER ALL RIGHTTT??!!"

"She's not your daughter, fag."

Ichigo stuck a hand out of the car window almost casually, punching Isshin in the face. He staggered, clutching his bleeding nose.

"MY SON'S SKILLS GROW STRONGER EVERY DAY!!!"

Yuzu and Karin appeared, both laden with takeaway boxes labelled 'NII-SAMA'S FRIED RICE' in big red letters.

Rukia turned green.

"Ichigo, I feel like puking again."

---

The fried rice was actually pretty good, but for some strange reason that Ichigo decided not to fathom, Rukia refused to eat it.

Byakuya was such a big bastard, that even when he wasn't around, his bastardly influence still remained attached resolutely to unsuspecting Rukia.

Well, no complaints at all, as he could have her share. Besides, he didn't want her to start vomiting again. He was lucky that the second tidal wave that came forth from Rukia's mouth made it to the drain in time thanks to Karin's alertness.

Ichigo didn't plan on smelling like a barf target on this road trip.

"Rukia-san, are you sure you don't want to have some fried rice?"

Yuzu's eyes were wide and pleading.

"You should eat something; we've got about three more hours to go!"

Rukia started to say something like 'I'm not hungry', but her stomach growled really, really loudly. Ichigo thought it sounded like a foghorn.

Yuzu's expression was as pleading as it could get.

"Rukia-san, I don't want you to get gastric!"

Ichigo knew that the signature 'pleading Yuzu look' always worked. It took about three seconds longer than Rukia's signature 'remorseful Rukia look', which made the time it took to work about…five seconds.

And it did.

_One…two…three…four…five._

"Okay, okay. Just one box, though."

Ichigo grinned inwardly.

Rukia was soon eating her words, almost literally, as she polished off at least four boxes.

"Shut up! I don't eat that much, and giga-, I mean, I won't get fat!"

"Well, you just might!"

"Onii-chan, it's not nice to insult a girl about her weight!"

"Ichi-nii, you should listen to Yuzu for once."

"Hah, Rukia, you're going to get fat if you eat another mouthful of that."

"No I won't! No I won't!"

Needless to say, this carried on for about two hours.

---

In the driver's seat, Isshin grinned as he looked in the driver's mirror.

Yuzu was sound asleep, clutching the two empty bottles that Rukia-san polished off. Karin was asleep as well.

Rukia-san was asleep on Ichigo's (who was sleeping too) shoulder again. Isshin's grin widened.

Ah, young love.

There was about an hour more to go before they reached Lake Kataguchi. Isshin whistled merrily, but not too loudly, as he didn't really want to wake everyone up.

Gigais getting fat, eh.

Urahara would be very much amused.

**to be continued!**

Sorry for the wait! I hope this chapter was fine, I thought it was. R&R purlease.

;redcheese


	3. No Room Service

Chaaapter three. lol I just realized that Isshin addresses Rukia as Rukia-chan, not Rukia-san. but I'll just keep this fic as the way it is. gah, sorry.

Oh no, I forgot about the disclaimer!

DISCLAIMER: If bleach was mine, we wouldn't need to _fantasize _about ichiruki _in the first place._

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 3: No Room Service**

Ichigo, Rukia, Karin and Yuzu had a rather painful awakening when they woke up to Isshin playing the bagpipes.

"WHAT THE HE-"

Isshin dropped the dreadful instrument, grabbed Ichigo by the collar and threw him out of the car as the girls watched sleepily.

"MY SON SHALL NOT USE PROFANITY WHEN IN EARSHOT OF MY DARLING THREE DAUGHTERS!!!"

"SINCE WHEN WAS RUKIA YOUR DAUGHTER?! AND 'HELL' ISN'T A FREAKING PROFANITY, YOU BEARDED SHIT!!"

All the girls climbed out of the car, watching father and son kick each other's asses. Karin thought Isshin was winning, but then again, one could never be sure when it came to such tests of strength.

A smooth dodge and a swiftly delivered kick sent Ichigo's father flying backwards into the water with an almighty splash (not to mention the wails).

Ichigo dusted his hands off.

"Cheh. He almost spoiled the view."

Lake Kataguchi was, well, _beautiful_. There was no other word for it, no other word whose cliché fitted in so perfectly with the place itself.

The trees grew proudly towards the sky, beckoning with their shade, instead of towering imposingly over you like the trees in the Sereitei forest.

The lake was just magnificently, breathtakingly _there_. The surface of the water seemed like a sheet of blue glass, apart from a few boulders sticking out randomly. Swallows zipped around, occasionally taking a dive to steal a sip of water.

Rukia was in awe.

"Oi, Rukia, I brought your crap into the house already."

"Oh, thank- hey. My stuff is not crap!"

"If you say so."

The Kurosaki summer house was lovely. It was, needless to say, nothing compared to the view, but it looked cozy enough.

Isshin clambered out of the water, his bright red shirt soaked.

"TIME TO ALLOCATE SLEEPING QUARTERS, TEAM!"

Ichigo ground his teeth and tried to stop himself from pushing his deranged father back into the lake again.

Rukia just laughed.

---

The layer of dust on the dining table was at least two inches thick, and if one breathed deep enough, one could taste the dust. And that was not a good thing.

"Ichigo."

"Huh?"

"How long has it been since your family's been here?"

"Ever since Mother died, I suppose."

"…oh dear."

The sleeping arrangements (by Isshin) were _actually_ fine. Rukia shared a room with Yuzu and Karin, and she would take the bed that fit Ichigo when he was 9.

Apart from one thing-

"NO, I WILL NOT SLEEP IN THE SAME ROOM AS YOU!!"

"BUTBUTBUT-"

"NO. FREAKING. WAY."

"MY DARLING SON SHOULD BOND WITH HIS FATHER ONCE IN A WHILE!!"

"OH GOD, HOW THE HELL DO YOU MAKE THAT SOUND SO GODDAMN WRONG?!?!"

In the end, with a few well aimed punches, Ichigo managed to set up camp on the living room couch without much trouble.

Violence never really hurt anyone, and on contrary to popular belief, it actually made everything very much simpler.

Isshin soon retreated, grumbling and bruised, into the master bedroom. Ichigo, Karin and Rukia were dispatched to clean the place up while Yuzu made dinner.

"Ichigo, the mops are dusty. And you look like a housewife."

"…Shut up. The mop's taller than you."

"S-so what? You're not _that _tall, anyway."

"You're one to talk."

Karin cleared her throat loudly.

"Ichi-nii, Rukia-san, can you guys work on the bathroom? I'll fix the dining room."

"O-okay."

When the duo dashed off with their rags and buckets, still bickering, Karin looked thoughtfully after them.

_Ichi-nii and Rukia-san…_

Karin tried to envision both of them together. It wasn't very hard.

_Well, whatever. It's not my place to decide._

Karin dusted her hands off, and grabbed a mop.

_He seems much happier when she's around, anyway._

_Go, Ichi-nii._

---

"The toilet smells baaaad, Ichigo."

"You said it."

The bathroom was disgusting.

Rukia wrinkled her nose, and Ichigo's eyes watered a little.

Were those…mushrooms?

They didn't really want to examine the contents of the place up close. Before they knew it, they'd have grown mould on their toes, or something freaky like that.

Rukia grimaced, and flicked the lights on and off absentmindedly.

"I feel like freezing this whole place."

Something clicked.

Both of them turned their heads to look at each other at exactly the same instant, and Shinigami stared at Substitute Shinigami with crazed glints in their eyes.

"Keep watch."

Rukia popped in a Chappy pill, and Pyon took tyrannical charge over Rukia's body while Rukia unsheathed her sword.

And Ichigo's body as well.

"Stay still, _Pyon_!"

"…STOP THAT! AND FREAKING GET OFF ME."

"No way, _Pyon_!"

"THAT HURTS, GODDAMN IT!"

"Wait till Rukia-sama has finished, then I'll let you go weally weally quick!"

"I'M NOT EVEN GETTING IN THE WA-"

"You're vewy noisy. I'll bweak your leg!"

"Stop it- GAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

In seconds, the bathroom was sparkling clean (and Ichigo was freed), apart from the few errant shards of ice that would melt in no time.

---

It was eight in the evening and getting dark when every speck of dust inside the Kurosaki summer house had been eradicated.

Ichigo and Rukia were putting the buckets and mops away in the storeroom when they heard Yuzu calling them from outside the house.

"Onii-chan, Rukia-san, time to catch dinner!"

They had been so busy cleaning and calling each other names that they had forgotten completely about eating.

Rukia's stomach growled.

"Now that Yuzu-chan mentioned it, I _am_ hungry."

Ichigo grinned at the prospect of food, but he realized that something seemed rather wrong.

"Wait a second. What does she mean by _catch _dinner?"

---

They were going _fishing _at freaking eight in the evening.

Isshin waved his fishing rod around flamboyantly, gesturing towards the lake with much enthusiasm.

"It is the perfect time to fish, my children!"

Ichigo snarled, and muttered something about instant noodles.

"My lazy son! You reap what you sow later in life, and I will be applying this wonderful concept here. If you catch nothing, you eat nothing!"

Said lazy son wondered how his bastard of a father could be so plain evil at times.

Karin looked resigned to fate, while Yuzu looked almost as excited as her twin.

"Come on, Yuzu."

They baited their rods and left for a rock at the side of the lake.

After Isshin waded into the lake to cast his line, Rukia grinned at Ichigo, who stared moodily back.

"In Rukongai, we would fish with spears."

He stopped baiting his line and looked at her.

"Rods were slow, and you needed bait. For spears, if you were good enough, you could spear your fish really fast."

She balanced her rod on the floor, trying to make it stand upright.

"We would build a fire at the side of the river. The river, was nothing like this lake, it was muddy brown and not at all this clear."

Rukia looked up at him, her expression open, like she would tell him anything and everything if he asked her, right at this moment.

"But we were happy."

Ichigo shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to hide the grin that kept pulling at the sides of his stubborn mouth. He gave up, and turned to her.

"Ah."

She held eye contact with him for a few moments, and then she looked back towards the lake.

Life in Rukongai was hard, but they were undeniably happy. She, Renji and her other friends who had passed on so long ago had it tough, but they were free to do whatever they liked.

No protocol, no self consciousness, no control. They weren't expected to do anything, and they expected nothing of themselves.

Soul Society was another story all together. When the nobles and the upper class came in, they had to watch themselves. When Nii-sama came in, she had to watch herself many, many times more.

Even after Nii-sama told her that Hisana was her sister, she still knew that it was an honour to be a Kuchiki, and she had to live up to their name.

Ichigo thought he kind of understood that. Not that he empathized completely, but he knew how she felt, to a certain extent.

"I kind of understand everything, apart from that fancy pansy-ass crap about Byakuya."

"D-do not sully Nii-sama's name!"

"Byakuya is a dumb little daisy. Hah, what are you going to do about it?"

"Hey!"

He smiled widely and infectiously, and picked up his rod.

"Let's cut the crap, and get ourselves some dinner."

---

No fish were biting that night.

Karin and Yuzu weren't surprised at all. Ichigo was glowering at a certain bastard, and Rukia looked a little disappointed.

Isshin, on the other hand, was completely crushed.

Yuzu sighed heavily.

"Thank goodness I brought noodles, just in case something like this happened. Everyone, can you guys go into the house while I make dinner?"

Karin dragged a sobbing Isshin back into the house with Yuzu and Ichigo, leaving Rukia alone outside.

She put hitched her skirt up over her knees, pulled off her slippers and waded into the water, towards a small flat rock near the shore. The water reached halfway up her calves when she finally got to the boulder, feeling the soft mud and weed under her feet.

The rock was smooth and cool from the night air. Rukia sat on the edge, letting her toes skim the water. There were times in Rukongai when it was like this, when it let her forget the blood that stained the hands of almost everyone there.

Ichigo's family was so…retarded.

She could hear the Kuchiki in her admonish herself crisply.

_Don't use that word, Kuchiki Rukia; it's a word of a commoner._

Rukia pushed the voice away. Now was not the time, she would deal with that later, and just enjoy herself.

The Kurosakis were wonderful. Yuzu took the role of a mother, cleaning and cooking, while Karin was self sufficient and didn't need anyone to take care of her.

Even though Isshin-san was crazy and beat Ichigo up for no reason, Rukia somehow could tell that Isshin-san really cared.

And Ichigo…

Ichigo was just Ichigo. Being annoyingly protective, being so stubborn sometimes that she felt like going over there and kneeing him, and not really giving a damn what everyone thought about him.

She admired him for that, and wished in vain that she could be just like him.

Ichigo knew what kind of person he wanted to be, and that was good enough for him. Besides, he was so young, and had so many freaking years ahead of him to decide.

It _was _partially her fault for tying him down with Shinigami duties, but then again, he didn't blame her, and they both knew it. It was like having those joint bank account things, she mused.

There were so many things in the human world that were new to her, and she could ask Ichigo to show them to her one day.

Rukia fiddled with the hem of her skirt as she looked towards the dark shadows of the trees. Maybe one day she could ask him about his mother, and she could tell him about Kaien-dono, and maybe she would te-

"Antisocial much?"

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Ichigo had rolled his pants up, waded into the water and stuck his face right in front of hers.

"Aw, Rukia got a fright!"

"Don't sneak up on me like that, it's scary!"

"Wimp who slays hollows. Here, your dinner."

He held up a tray with two huge bowls of noodles and chopsticks, and Rukia relieved him of his baggage as he sat himself next to her.

They ate in silence and with gusto, being as hungry as they were from their failed fishing efforts.

"So, how d'you find this place."

Rukia looked towards the sky contemplatively, and then moved her gaze straight at him. She grinned that grin that always made his heart leap, and looked back up at the stars.

"It's great."

He grinned, too.

"Ah."

They didn't say much, just sitting there, but if it was good enough for them, it was naturally good enough for everybody else.

**to be continuedz**

yay, chapter three. I took a hell of a long time to type this for some reason. sorry about the late update!

;redcheese


	4. Swimsuits Are Dangerous, Too

Heads up for chapter 4. We'll be meeting some neeew people here all right.

**The Wilderness Is Scary**

**Chapter 4: Swimsuits Are Dangerous, Too**

**Friday, 13 July**

_Ichigo was standing on top of a rock in the middle of the lake, looking for Rukia. She was right here just now, where did she go?_

"_Rukia!!"_

_He felt his breathing quicken as he looked up and all around, not seeing her, and not seeing her made the claws of panic dig deep into his chest, cutting him._

"_Rukia!"_

_Where the hell was she? He shut his eyes for a moment to think, and when he opened them, he was in this weirdass place. It looked like it was among the clusters of trees that surrounded the lake, but the only thing scary was that the place was saturated with a suffocating, strangling ominous feeling. _

_Ichigo heard Karin's voice, and he turned around, eyes wide, as he saw his sister standing before him, looking like the bait of the Grand Fisher. _

"_Ichi-nii, hurry!"_

_His grip on Zangetsu (hey, o-san, didn't notice you there) tightened, as he weaved in and out of the many trees that shrouded over the whole place. Reiatsu, reiatsu, REIATSU._

_He could sense nothing; feel almost nothing, and the only thing that he could feel was that crushing feeling of suffocation that had been wrapped around him, like a thick, airless blanket of smog._

"_RUKIA!"_

_Ichigo saw the hem of her yellow dress whipping just out of sight and he chased after that, hope replenishing his depleting adrenalin._

_Ichigo ran hard, tasted the stale air, and ran harder. _

_He was so suddenly presented with a huge clearing that he almost tripped. _

"_What the hell?"_

_There, there! Right in the middle of the circular pitch of tree barren soil, there she was. He loosened his hold on Zangetsu, felt o-san kick him somewhere in his brain for dropping his guard simultaneously, and held the hilt tighter still. _

"_RUKIA!" _

_She didn't wave, she just shook her head, had the same expression on her face when Byakuya and Renji had come to take her away, the expression of __**don't save me or you'll fucking die**__, and he stopped for just a second._

_Ichigo felt the ground rise up against him, like a huge tidal wave of soil, blocking her from view, and a yell rose in his throat. He heard freaky, monster laughs, with menace and evil and whatever crap there was describing such a laugh, and he turned around-_

Ichigo woke up.

_Hell, _he thought, wiping sweat from his forehead, breathing hard. There was a lot of it.

_That was one scary shit dream._

He got up from the couch to go check on Rukia and his sisters, but he stopped himself. It was a stupid thing to do, it was only a dream.

_Just checking_, he assured himself, and went anyway.

Ichigo pushed the door open with a slight creak and peered into the room.

Yuzu and Karin were there, sleeping soundly with their blankets wrapped around them. He let out a breath that he had been holding in when he saw the back of her head nestled on top of a pillow, her arms hugging the blankets.

He grinned.

"Baka."

---

Isshin had decided that they would rise at the unearthly time of six to visit their neighbours. He wanted to make cookies, but Ichigo beat him down.

Literally.

One could never be bored in the Kurosaki household, Rukia mused to herself in her yellow Chappy pyjamas. Something funny was always happening, and she was guaranteed a laugh at all hours of the day. Her own 'family' was another world altogether.

Even _thinking _about them made her check her hair, look down at her pyjamas and wonder what the hell she was doing walking around the house of Kurosakis dressed like that.

But when she looked up at the scene of Ichigo punching Isshin-san in the face because he tried to stuff his son in the washing machine, she decided that things like this didn't matter here.

Rukia smiled.

It didn't matter with them.

---

The walk to the other side of the lake was a pleasant one.

The weather was exquisite, the air was fresh and the view of the lake was spectacular from all angles. Isshin skipped along arm in arm with Yuzu while Karin muttered and Ichigo stomped beside Rukia trying to appear grumpy, but failing miserably.

Rukia was wearing a white v-necked dress with embroidery at the corners, and white shoes that looked like those Yoruichi-san had.

She stuffed a flower into his shirt pocket abruptly, grinning. It was bright red, and he grimaced.

"What the hell?"

"It's supposed to make you look happier."

"…It won't."

"Fine, then eat it. I don't care."

Ichigo pulled it from his pocket and studied it, ignoring her glares as they walked. It looked like those flowers that Hawaiian ladies had behind their ears with their stupid coconut breastplates and grass skirts.

Before he knew what he was doing, he stopped and tucked the flower behind her ear, thinking vaguely that Rukia did look rather nice today, his fingers brushing her face for the slightest moment.

Ichigo came back to earth with a nicely aimed kick to his shin, and a very calculating glare from Rukia.

"What the hell was that for?"

He grappled for a reasonable response, and failed.

"Uh, you didn't have a pocket."

Rukia blinked.

"That sucked."

"I know."

They looked at each other for a while, and then suddenly, they felt it.

Reiatsu.

Rukia's hand immediately plunged into her pocket, her fingertips on the Soul Candy holder. Ichigo reached for the substitute Shinigami badge around his belt loop, waiting.

They felt it again; a little silver of it, and then it disappeared almost immediately. Ichigo turned his head just a little in Rukia's direction and muttered, "D'you think it's a resident Shinigami?"

Rukia shook her head, thinking hard. She would recognize a Shinigami's reiatsu with ease, but this one was different, this one was laced with apparent malice that made her own reiatsu threaten to spike.

_Hollow?_

They couldn't feel it anymore, and Rukia's spirit phone yielded no answers. Ichigo put his hand on her shoulder, and she relaxed a little.

"We'd better catch up with my idiot dad."

---

The house across the lake was much, much larger than the Kurosaki summer house. It had a garage, an enormous front lawn and a gravel pathway.

"Awesome house," Ichigo offered half-heartedly.

Isshin humphed, clearly envious.

"Our view's better."

Karin rolled her eyes, and Yuzu sighed, resigned to fate.

Rukia, grinning, was still wearing the flower in her hair, Ichigo observed. Either she had forgotten completely about it due to the unknown reiatsu, or…

Or what?

Before he could contemplate further, Isshin kicked him.

"Welcome our neighbours, you unfriendly boy!"

Said neighbours were now walking down the pathway. There was a rather old fashioned lady, a small girl with a round face with her mother's yellow hair and a childish pink dress, and a good looking boy who seemed about Ichigo's age.

The lady spoke in a mellow, calming voice, gesturing smoothly to herself.

"We're the Satoshis, and it's very nice to have you here. I'm Satoshi Hamano."

Mrs. Satoshi patted the little girl on her head, who smiled a smile too wide for her very round face. "This is Risako, and she's ten." She ruffled the coffee brown hair of the boy, who blushed a little and ducked, eyes darting towards Rukia.

Ichigo was slightly amused. Now this was new, the neighbour was hitting on Rukia.

"This is Ryouuhei, and he's seventeen."

Risako curtsied, and Ryouuhei bowed.

Isshin waved his hands around enthusiastically. Rukia smiled, amused, while Ichigo thought he looked like someone who was fending off a hive of bees than someone who was saying hello to the neighbours, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

"We're the Kurosakis! I'm Kurosaki Isshin, and we are very pleased to meet you."

His hands landed on Yuzu and Karin's shoulders, and both of them attempted to smile serenely.

"This is Yuzu, and this is Karin! They're twins, and they're twelve."

Risako waved at them, excited at the prospect of someone closer to her age to play with, and they couldn't help but be infected by her enthusiasm.

Isshin sidled up to Ichigo, who attempted to conceal his grimace with a painful smile that fooled no one except the Satoshis.

"This is my lady-killer son, Ichigo! He's seventeen!"

Ichigo's jaw dropped. That was so smooth, that he hadn't even notice it till the end. Of all the ideas his crazy dad could come up with, he came up with _lady-killer_?

Said lady-killer ground his teeth, thinking that the only ladies he had 'killed' were lady hollow souls.

Isshin moved on to Rukia.

"This is a friend of my son and us, who is staying at our place due to some family problems!"

Rukia smiled her glimmering (fake) smile with sparkles included for free, and curtsied daintily, pulling at the edges of her white dress.

Ichigo snorted when he saw the Satoshi boy staring at Rukia again.

_Deprived, much?_

"I'm Kuchiki Rukia, and it's lovely to meet you!"

---

After the Satoshis had invited them inside for some drinks, Rukia surveyed the Satoshi house décor. The paintings on the walls were rather old fashioned, which she suspected to be the mother's fault. The couch was big and squashy, and the furniture was plain. She wandered off to the kitchen, bare feet feeling the clean floor with appreciation.

Meanwhile, the younger generation got acquainted.

"Do you guys live here?"

Karin couldn't help but ask. The place had the smell and the look of a home well-used, not musky and lonely like theirs since Oka-san died.

Risako bounced up and down on the seat of the couch, the pink skirt of her dress swaying and her yellow bobbed bangs following suit.

"Mostly, 'cause Oka-san doesn't like the house in the city and neither do we."

Yuzu took a bite of a cookie and a sip of milk. "How about school, Risako-chan?"

Risako tugged at a lock of yellow hair. "Oka-san drives us to school in town, both Onii-chan and I. It's near here."

Yuzu thought for a while.

"Where's your Oto-san, Risako-chan?"

She shrugged, her eyes lacking the pain that the twins had expected.

"He's not around."

When they had finished their snacks, Risako clapped her hands together with the air of a house-proud little hostess.

"Wanna see my room?"

Yuzu nodded happily, while Karin shrugged.

"Sure."

---

Rukia was greeted by the sight of Ryouuhei in the kitchen, pouring a glass of water.

He looked up, and turned red. As red as the flower in her hair, she noted.

…Flower.

_You didn't throw it away? And what the hell was he doing, putting the flower behind your ear like that. Like you two were…_

_Together. _

Rukia shook her head, as if she was trying to get water out of her ears. _Just forget about it_, she hammered into her brain. _It's not as if it even mattered to him, or you. _

Rukia bit her lip, and sighed.

_Or did it?_

"You're…Kuchiki-san?"

She looked up, and saw the boy looking at her. He was quite a good looking chap, she thought, and cocked her head at him, smiling just a little.

"I would suppose so. You're Satoshi-san, right?"

_A friendly family boy, eh. _

Ryouuhei waited for Kuchiki Rukia to say something, but her beautiful face was closed towards him, offering nothing, even though she was smiling so brightly. It was obvious that she was not interested in him at all, and she showed it, somehow.

The falseness made him uncomfortable.

"Um, you're Kurosaki-san's high school friend?"

"Yep."

"How old are you?"

_Ten times your age._

"Same age as he is. And you too."

Rukia sighed, lost in thought, as she turned around to walk out of the kitchen. She would have treated him more nicely if she wasn't distracted at the moment.

"Bad mood?"

She spun around, caught off guard.

"H-huh? No, I'm not…"

Ryouuhei smiled at her, a real one.

"It's okay if you're in a bad mood. We'll talk another time, right?"

She blinked. He saw through her act. The only other person who did was Ichigo, and maybe Ishida. Karin could kind of tell, too, but other than that, few could.

Rukia didn't know what to say.

"S-sorry. I was just thinking, that's all. You can call me Rukia."

He grinned back, and she blinked again, taken aback by his sincerity.

"No problem, Rukia-san. And you can call me Ryouuhei."

---

Ichigo slumped into the kitchen to get another cookie, and saw the Ryouuhei boy and Rukia.

_Pansy boy._

Ichigo looked up, surprised with himself. Now, where had that come from? The boy seemed decent and all. At least he wasn't like Keigo, that perverted bastard.

_At least Rukia was still wearing the flower. _

"Hello Ichigo-san. Do you mind me calling you that?"

Ichigo nodded vaguely, and ate his cookie.

"We're all of the same age, right," Ryouuhei volunteered. The silence was almost unnerving. Ichigo-san glowered perpetually, and Ryouuhei couldn't decide whether it was his natural expression, or whether he was naturally pissed all the time.

Ichigo choked on his cookie, sniggering at Rukia for reasons only they knew.

Rukia glared at him, and he stopped.

Ryouuhei was perplexed.

"Is there a joke that I missed out on?" Rukia shook her head, a small, real smile on her face. Ichigo just ate his cookie.

Ryouuhei raised his eyebrows, praying silently to himself.

"Are you two together, or something?"

Ichigo choked again, and Rukia nodded, taking a sip from her fresh glass of water.

"You two are…together?" _Oh, just my luck_.

Ichigo shook his head violently. Rukia half-nodded, caught sight of Ichigo's vehement protests and stopped.

"We are together, right?"

"NO WE AREN'T, NO WE AREN'T!"

Ryouuhei paused. He was definitely missing something here. Maybe a clarification would help?

"Together as in, the 'boyfriend & girlfriend' kind of together, that's what I was asking."

Both of their reactions were priceless. Ichigo seemed to be having little spasms in his whole body, while Rukia spat out all the water in her mouth with a sound that could be spelt as 'blargh'.

Ichigo snarled at Rukia.

"You stupid midget, that was what he meant all along!"

"I didn't know! You were supposed to tell me, you know I'm not familiar with these sorts of terms in the human world!"

"Oh? Just a week ago you were climbing all over my head with your class one priority information from your accursed _manga_!"

"This is just a fluke! Putting information from books into real life situations is a very hard thing to do, you bastard; I'd like to see _you_ try kidou out after reading my manuals!"

Ryouuhei scratched the back of his head, confused. He had no idea what they were talking about.

"Erm, so what is your relationship with each other, then?"

Both of them swung themselves around to snap at him that their relationship was 'PURELY PLATONIC, DUMBASS', eyes glinting. He swore their irises were now tinted red with crazed bickering, and he swore that the whole place was shaking.

He tiptoed out. They _looked_ like they meant what they had said.

_Platonic? _

_I do hope they really, really understand what each other said. I wouldn't want to interfere in anything, even if they don't know it themselves._

---

After the obligatory tour round the Kurosaki summer house, Isshin announced that since Mrs. Satoshi needed to go to town for two nights for work, the kids would be sleeping in the Kurosaki summer house where a _responsible adult_ could take care of them.

Ichigo had something to say about Mrs. Satoshi's obviously misguided outlook on Isshin as a parent, but he decided not to.

After Ryouuhei and Risako brought their little overnight bags and mattresses over to the rooms, they rearranged the sleeping plans. Isshin would (he volunteered '_magnanimously_') to sleep on the living room couch while the girls took the master bedroom. Ichigo and Ryouuhei would take the floor of the room that the girls vacated, as they were both of about the same height, give or take a centimeter or two; the beds did not fit them.

Ichigo was pleased to note that he was the _taller one_.

The twins had taken immediately to Risako and vice versa, hence Rukia, too, didn't have much trouble with the blonde haired kid.

Ichigo didn't really mind Ryouuhei; just that he didn't like the boy. Somehow.

Once everyone had put their mattresses in their designated areas and decided what Risako, Karin and Yuzu would make for dinner, it was about three in the afternoon.

When Ichigo poked his head out of the door, he was met with what seemed like a wall of solidified heat. The sun had fried the cool morning air to a dry, hot texture, and it really _sucked_.

Being as optimistic as ever, Risako put her little palms in the air and announced a very important announcement.

"Let's go swimming!"

Yuzu, Rukia and Risako dragged a somewhat reluctant Karin to try on their swimming costumes and Isshin lumbered off somewhere.

Which left the Ichigo and Ryouuhei standing in the middle of the living room.

Ryouuhei attempted a cheery smile.

"I suppose we should go change now."

Ichigo shrugged, and went to drag his much underused pair of board shorts from somewhere in-between his 'Nice Vibe' and 'Speaking Is Not Communication' shirts.

---

Isshin pranced out from the bathroom, wearing bright red pair of swimming shorts which Ichigo had much criticism to give.

Yuzu wore a yellow two piece bathing suit, Risako donned a pink one piece leotard like thing, and Karin dampened the parade somewhat with a black shirt and black bike shorts.

Ryouuhei and Ichigo both wore board shorts of about the same colour, and from the back, the only things which one could use to tell them apart was the colour of their hair, and the muscles that showed.

Ichigo could safely say that he had more without lying. He felt smug for a while, and then he had a little revelation.

"Rukia has a swimsuit?"

Yuzu, Karin and Risako nodded furiously and indignantly.

"Onii-chan, how could you not know that Rukia-san has a swimsuit?"

"Ichigo-san, a girl's very sensitive about this sort of thing!"

Ichigo blinked. That was aggressive. It appeared that Rukia had a fan club consisting of ten and twelve year olds.

"O-okay. I'm sorry. Where did she get it from, anyway?"

Karin crossed her arms over her black shirt.

"We thought you would know where she got such a nice swimsuit, but it appears that you do not, Ichi-nii."

Even Ryouuhei laughed, earning him a glare from Ichigo.

"Ichigo, why did you guys wait for me?"

He turned around, and the first thing he saw was _Rukia in a swimsuit_.

It was dark blue, just like her eyes, and it was the same type that Risako wore. Even if he knew it was a gigai, the only thing Ichigo could say out loud that didn't sound perverted was:

"At least you're not fat."

That earned him a kick in the backside and Rukia's fan club's indignant squeals. He muttered to himself, rubbing his seat as he followed them outside.

'At least Rukia's not fat' was an understatement. She was, well, slim. And _pretty_. He had to force the word out from the recesses of his mind as he felt Zangetsu chuckle in amusement.

Which meant, in the infamous Keigo language, she had a nice ass.

But Ichigo wouldn't say that about Rukia, he couldn't! It was weird to think such things about her, especially if she was sleeping in his house, and sometimes his closet, when she had bad dreams.

_Rukia is Rukia. Rukia is just Rukia. Rukia is not eye-candy, and Rukia should not be stared at, even if she's wearing a bikin-ARRRRRGHHHHH._

Ichigo felt like running himself through with Zangetsu, but he knew from the experience with the Kariya and the Bountou that O-san wouldn't cut him, as O-san was not stupid.

He turned to the right, and saw Ryouuhei's red face. Clearly, he wasn't the only one having problems with Rukia's attire, or lack of it.

_Ignore. Ignore. Ignore._

_Don't look at her as if she's some model in the magazine with close to nothing on. She's Rukia, and she should be treated with a hell lot of respect, even the sight of her. Get a grip on yourself, Kurosaki Ichigo. Don't be a pervert._

That did it. He would not be like Kon or Keigo, he would stop being a loser and he would stop gibbering. He glanced at red-faced Ryouuhei again, and immediately felt so much better.

Ichigo stepped into the water and felt his body temperature drop by millions of degrees. He preferred water like this, when it had collected into a big crater, instead of bloody rain.

Rain was not good. Lakes, like this one, were.

He dipped his head into the water, and saw the bottom of the lake, lined with weeds and small fishes. Ichigo treaded water for a while, his head in the water for a few minutes, and emerged, breathing in more air, before diving under again, this time swimming like a crocodile at the bottom.

He saw Yuzu, Karin and Risako's legs congregated at one area, although they were a bit blurred due to the lack of goggles. He saw Ryouuhei's lean legs somewhere near the edge of the lake, who was probably sitting on a rock, and Isshin's hairy legs splashing stupidly about somewhere.

Ichigo went up for air, and saw Rukia sitting on the rock where both of them had sat for dinner. He swam over and propped himself up on it, his wet orange hair plastered over his eyes.

She was meditating.

Her eyes were closed, legs crossed and each hand on each knee, a perfect picture of quiet. He was so tempted to poke her, or make some comment on her posture, but he somehow decided not to.

Rukia looked very, very peaceful at the moment.

_If you __**don't want to **__beat 'em, join 'em._

Ichigo hoisted himself up on the rock beside her, crossed his legs, shut his eyes and meditated too.

---

Isshin plodded back into the house, leaving wet footprints on the floor. He checked the time on the lilac clock of Masaki's on the wall.

Six thirty.

There was something foul that was faintly thick in the air. Isshin was sure Ichigo and Rukia would have sensed just a little of it, them of all people. His crappy gigai, which blocked his reiatsu from flaring up, definitely blocked his ability to sense reiatsu by a substantial amount.

Isshin felt the need for assistance from a rather old but helpful friend.

He walked over to his bag on the coffee table, in front of the dark blue couch he slept on, and pulled out a phone that looked very much like Rukia's.

Taking note of the faint beeping sound coming from the device, Isshin flicked the phone open and read the message aloud, but softly.

_We have a crony of a very old acquaintance of yours. He is near._

---

Somewhere at the bottom of the lake, a pair of red eyes snapped open.

The orange haired boy who was swimming at the other side of the lake smelled _so tasty. _Usually, the smell of souls couldn't reach so deep, but once in a while, when an exceptionally strong soul with tons of spirit power came along, the smell was so strong it was intoxicating.

The red eyes watched the human with orange hair swim towards a rock, linger there for a while, and climb onto the rock.

Just now, there was a girl, too. A black haired girl in a blue swimming costume. Both of them smelled _so tasty_, and if both of them were in the water together…

The aroma would be _so, so delicious_. So _delicious _that they would have to be eaten.

But care had to be taken. Patience, as something _so tasty _was hard to come by. Orders had to be given before one could attack, and one had to wait patiently for such orders. The Leader was busy, and the Leader knew best.

The red eyes watched the other bodies moving around in the water, swimming and splashing. The little girls would make an easy meal, but they wouldn't be as _tasty_. The pair of legs in the blue board shorts held some interest.

The smell was faint. _Tasty_.

The red eyes roved around, nearly going mad from the _delicious smell_. They narrowed when they landed upon the pair of hairy legs, and relaxed slightly in disappointment.

That pair had absolutely no smell at all, but there was the feeling of a blocked nose.

The pair of red eyes narrowed, once more, in calculative, suppressed rage.

_Shinigami_.

Only accursed _Shinigami _could give such a feeling, as the Leader had repeatedly warned, and when one had such a feeling, one had to be really, really careful. And one had to stay in the water all the time with the _taste _and the _smell _and the _aroma _hovering around.

The Leader would want to know about this interesting situation. The red eyes stared for a while in obvious longing, turned around and disappeared.

_**Torture**__, and if only one could have just a little bite. _

to be continuedz.

I was away for camp and stuff like that, so pardon me. An extra long chapter today. _SATOshi._ That might have rung a bell.

;redcheese


	5. Hurricane Cellar

Chapter five is here! By the way, the Satoshis aren't in anyway related to the antagonist in my other fic. The name is simply a beautiful coincidence, as Yumichika would say. For fun; in my own words. The plot thickens; do enjoy.

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 5: Hurricane Cellar**

Ichigo muttered darkly to himself as he sat with the grass at the edge of the lake.

His goodwill not to disturb Rukia's peaceful meditating had scored him a kick in the face for 'copying her'. Ichigo muttered more. _Goodwill was never appreciated_, he thought even more darkly, his scowl deepening as he stared gloomily at the little fish nibbling algae on a submerged rock.

Sounds of loud, crisp splashes tugged at his ears, and he looked up.

Rukia dived into the water and emerged, her retarded black fringe plastered over her nose. The water hugged her waist, and she dived again, hands at the ready in front of her.

She looked strangely graceful, like a skillful stork on a mission to feed.

When she emerged, she was a few feet away from him, and she didn't break concentration to acknowledge his presence. Yet he knew she knew that he knew she was aware his presence for sure, somehow.

Out of the corner of Ichigo's eye, he saw Risako splashing little spurts of water at his sisters and the Satoshi boy. Isshin was nowhere to be found, that responsible family man.

Rukia's hand pierced the water like a spear, and she looked up at him with a dripping wet face and a giant triumphant smile. The fish was grasped tight with her fingers and its tail twitched feebly. It was quite big, about the length of her elbow to wrist.

Ichigo shoved his hands into the pockets of his board shorts and waded into the water to join her. He grinned at her skill. The fish was unblemished by clumsy fingers.

"Nice one."

"Thank you. Don't you wish you could do something like this, too?"

Ichigo let out a puff of air in response to her jibe, and she grinned at him with abashed pride. He decided to give in. He didn't think _Nii-sama _permitted his sister to wallow in ponds and filth.

"Of course I do."

---

Yuzu, Risako and Karin marveled over the fish that Rukia had landed with her bare hands. Naturally, Isshin and Ryouuhei joined in too, as Ichigo glowered in the corner.

"Rukia-chan, I'll steam it with bits of ginger and black sauce. It'll be my best dish!"

"Cool, steamed fish. We haven't had that in a long time, and I can't wait."

"Onee-san is amazing!"

"RUKIAA-CHAAN!! I am prostrate at your feet to be a disciple of you, Rukia senpai! Oh tell me, senpai, where you got your infallible fishing skills from!"

"Rukia-san, I'm sure dinner tonight would taste great."

Ichigo twitched slightly in annoyance, grabbed his towel and went to bathe. He didn't feel like being caught up in the mad rush for the bathroom. Besides, by the time he was nice and squeaky clean, dinner would be ready.

He didn't want to have dinner in a lake water filled pair of board shorts.

In the living room, Rukia smirked inwardly. She was glad that all her fishing efforts in Rukongai had paid off, and she would boast about it to Renji the next time she saw him.

She glanced over to Ryouuhei, who was playing tag with the girls.

He had kept looking at her throughout the day.

Rukia had felt uncomfortable and self-conscious at first, but the attention had admittedly boosted her ego by just a little. He was good looking, to be frank, and he was extremely polite. He managed to see a little through her mask of sparkly bliss, and Rukia was rather impressed.

Ryouuhei had none of Renji's brash whirlwind of tattoos, and he had none of Ichigo's boyish, stubborn determination.

In Soul Society, he would have to be a pure-bred noble to have such manners. She was sure Nii-sama would approve greatly of him.

Yet, she wasn't interested.

Ryouuhei was very obviously interested in _her_, but she didn't feel the need to have a response for him. He was just a boy, just a human boy. He was too meek, he was…

Her eyes widened as she came to a realization.

He wasn't _Ichigo_.

Rukia sighed. Her thoughts wandered, and she sank against the cushions.

_If only, if only._

---

Dinner looked extremely appetizing. Yuzu's culinary abilities had been proven to be top notch; even Ichigo had to agree to that.

There were three dishes and a pot full of rice to go with that. The steamed fish was naked in all its garlicky dark-sauced glory, the plate of potato and cucumber salad crisp and fresh, and the bowl of miso soup to mellow everything down in between.

Dinner was served, and everyone insisted that Rukia deserved the biggest and tastiest piece of fish. After all, she was the one who caught it in the first place.

Rukia had no complaints.

Ichigo speared a slice of potato, spooned a silver of fish, took a mouthful of rice, and washed everything down with a steaming hot gulp of miso soup.

_Lovely dinner._

It wasn't him to compliment Rukia for her catch, and it wasn't him to compliment Yuzu on the dinner. Not out aloud, anyway.

He decided to demonstrate his appreciation by cleaning out his plate and fighting with Isshin over the last potato while the rest of the people at the table watched in amusement.

"Dammit, you bastard, you already had at least half the plate!"

"Ah, my son, but the child must give in to his parent!"

"ISN'T IT SUPPOSED TO BE THE OTHER WAY ROUND?!"

And so on and so forth.

Rukia wiped her mouth with her napkin, extremely and happily full. She wouldn't be surprised if her gigai _had _put on weight.

Smoothing out her blue nightgown, Rukia reached out across the table into the fray of insults that was hurled forth from Ichigo and Isshin-san to take a cucumber.

Cucumbers were tasty.

If they had to fight over something, they'd be better off fighting over the cucumber she just took. Fools, Rukia thought to herself as she chewed. They've got all their priorities wrong.

---

Risako's big eyes weren't fixated on the piece of fish that she was working on, but on her Onii-chan. After a while of observing Onii-chan, she knew that Onii-chan liked Rukia-chan. Risako chewed on the mouthful of food contemplatively. Rukia-chan was very pretty, and she looked like a princess with her shiny black hair and deep blue eyes.

The little girl scowled when she thought of her own bright yellow locks which weren't shiny at all, and her normal, normal brown eyes that weren't special in the slightest.

Onii-chan had good taste, she gathered, as out of the corner of her eye, she saw Onii-chan looking at Rukia-chan. Again.

Risako sighed.

But Rukia-chan didn't like Onii-chan that way, she knew that for sure. Rukia-chan liked Ichigo-san, and _that_ was for sure.

---

Ryouuhei looked down at his food, and risked a glance across the table at Rukia-san.

She was so pretty, and in the lake…

Ryouuhei did his best to stop the blush that was crawling its way up his neck. Rukia-san did have long, slim legs, and she was so pale. Even in her shapeless blue nightgown, Rukia-san was beautiful.

He wished that Rukia-san would be at ease with him, just like how she was so much at ease when she was with Ichigo-san.

---

Isshin cursed inwardly as he felt the reiatsu again. He glanced around, and he saw Ichigo and Rukia stiffen in their seats.

Clearly, they felt it too.

_It is in the water_, those were Urahara's words.

And when it surfaced for air -- that was when one could sense it. Urahara's subsequent messages had been marginally reassuring, but…

_Kuchiki-san's abilities, once she realizes how to use them, should be able to force it out of its hiding place. Kurosaki-san's abilities should be able to beat it down._

Isshin excused himself from the table with a jovial cry of 'Daddy wants to watch the stars!', and went outside.

_Isshin-san, your reiatsu is still weak. You haven't fully recuperated yet, so please stay inside your gigai. Your son's skills are almost superior to that of Soul Society's boldest and brightest, and Rukia-chan's even more so._

He snapped the phone shut. So, this was one of the Grand Fisher's cronies that had been sent by him, or it, to take them all down.

Yet he would have to stand aside again, stand aside to let his son and Rukia-chan take over. His duty was to keep his daughters and Mrs. Satoshi's children safe.

Isshin didn't like to know that he was virtually powerless.

---

Rukia looked up sharply as the sharp silver of reiatsu flashed past her. Ichigo looked up too, eyes wide, and turned to look at Rukia.

Ryouuhei's hand trembled.

_This feeling…_

He felt this occasionally in the past few days, and each time it happened, his heart was filled with dread. He didn't know what it was, but it was by no doubt something horrific.

Ichigo-san and Rukia-san were out the door in a flash, but he caught sight of the expressions their faces. Their faces were alert and tense, like they knew what was going on.

_They could feel it too?_

---

Ichigo saw Isshin standing at the lake's edge, watching. Rukia saw him too, and she called towards him.

"Isshin-san, it's cold outside. You should go back in."

The man looked at her, slowly, like he had just noticed they were there. He then abruptly smiled his insane smile and waved his hands randomly around his head.

_She's trying to protect me, eh. Ichigo has a good taste in girls._

"Okay, Rukia-chan! Thank you for your beautiful concern!"

He flounced back into the house, past Ichigo, not missing the opportunity to elbow his son in the ribs.

_Be careful, Ichigo._

"WHAT THE-"

Rukia clapped a hand over Ichigo's mouth.

"Mmph," he offered, raising his hands in a 'what the hell?' gesture.

"Fool. Do you want what's in that lake to hear us and attack? We're not ready, not yet. All the kids and your dad, they have to be safe first."

Ichigo nodded, and Rukia let go of him. They approached the edge of the lake quietly, cautiously. His hand never left his Shinigami Representative badge, her hand never left her tube of Soul Candy.

"We wait for it to attack; we wait as long as possible. There's no way we can wage a battle underwater, do you understand?"

Ichigo nodded once more. He was reckless, though he'd never admit it out loud and to her, but he knew. She was much more experienced in Hollow fighting, at least a hundred years of experience above him.

A large, unnatural ripple touched the surface of the water, and they felt the slice of reiatsu viciously toying with them again. It was if the monster below was…_teasing them_. Teasing them, letting go an inch and pulling back again, never ending torture of hide and seek with a rope trail.

Rukia's face darkened as she understood what it was trying to do.

Wear them out by the anticipation, and when they had let down their guard, it would strike.

It would strike and tear their souls to pieces to feed its bloody, insatiable greed.

"That waterlogged bastard…"

Ichigo snarled inwardly. A goddamn bastard, this hollow was. It was worse than the Hollow that blackmailed the parakeet so long ago. This sort of cruel tactic resembled…

His eyes widened in realization and he grabbed Rukia's arm, his lips close to her ear, moving fast in a rapid whisper.

_Grand Fisher. D'you think it's him? D'you think he could go underwater, or something?_

Rukia fought against the chills that ran down her back and sides from the close contact, and regained her stance.

_I don't know, Ichigo. There were no reports of him going underwater. He always worked on land, with his bait and his treachery._

_Rukia._

_Yeah?_

_The Grand Fisher controls other lesser Hollows, right?_

_From the reports, yes. Apparently he ordered some Hollows to attack Inoue's brother's soul. Yes, he controls them with an iron fist._

_D'you think this is one of his…_

_Underlings? _

_Yeah._

Rukia's eyes glittered under the moonlight, and she stepped away from him, from his warmth, feeling a twinge of reluctance that she beat down harshly to the pit of her stomach.

"In that case, Ichigo, we'd better stay out of our bodies all night."

They went back inside after splashing their legs with water from the tap (after what they had discussed, they didn't feel like putting a toe in the water at all), Rukia explaining that from the manga that she had read, they needed substantial evidence to support an excuse for staying out so long.

Once Yuzu asked them with a wide-eyed expression what they were doing, Rukia put a hand to her forehead and cried with great sorrow and in a crestfallen wail that they didn't manage to catch a single fish.

She blamed Ichigo's clumsiness for it, and he had snarled at her.

Karin looked at both of them, she looked at them and she watched them. They were acting, for sure; there was no doubt about it. Ichi-nii and Rukia-san thought she didn't know about their situation, but she did.

Karin was a smart girl, and so far, she had gotten the gist of it.

She had felt that strange, strange atmosphere that had reminded her about what had happened on Oka-san's death anniversary a couple of times, and she was scared. The lake gave her a bad feeling, and she had tried to persuade Yuzu and Risako not to stay in it for too long.

_Ichi-nii, what on earth is in there?_

---

**Saturday, 14 July**

It was 12:15AM when everyone settled down into their respective beds.

Ichigo hissed to Ryouuhei, who was at the other side of the room. It was just too _gay_ for them to be beside each other while they slept, both of them came to a silent agreement about that a long time ago.

"Ryouuhei-san."

A faint and a sleepy 'huh?' drifted over.

"Don't wake me. I'm goddamn tired."

His room mate had made some sort of indistinguishable noise before rolling over to face the other side. Ichigo looked at his watch impatiently, waiting for the sound of snoring to fill the room.

---

Rukia excused herself to the toilet. It was so easy when you had Soul Candy, but then again Kon wasn't around, and Ichigo had said it himself that he'd rather die than eat a Chappy pill.

She tiptoed past the snoring Isshin in the living room and pushed the main door open. Ichigo was standing outside in his Shinigami outfit, and he watched as she popped a pill into her mouth.

'Rukia' immediately attacked Ichigo.

"DA PYON!"

Rukia hissed at her previous self and extracted her from Ichigo.

"Shut up!"

Ichigo never thought he'd be able to see Rukia cower and grovel, but he did. It wasn't a very nice sight.

"Yes, Rukia-sama. My apologies."

'Rukia' bowed, and Ichigo had to stop himself from doubling over in sniggers.

"Okay. Go back to the room on the extreme left with the 3 little girls inside, and lie down in the empty bed. Tell them not to wake you because you're tired or something like that."

"Yes, Rukia-sama."

"If there's anything wrong, and if you sense any Hollow's reiatsu at all, bring all of them out of the house and into the forest. Ichigo's body is the last priority."

Ichigo couldn't help but feel indignant. Rukia sensed this, and turned to him to put a hand on his arm.

"You do understand the seriousness of this, right?"

He sighed, and looked at her straight in the eye.

"I do."

Rukia sent her gigai back into the house and directed Ichigo to a rock which was somewhere near the edge of the lake.

After they sat, Rukia produced a watch that she had swiped from Isshin with light-fingered skill. "We keep watch for two hours each, and then we'll swap. One keeps watch for any reiatsu activity, and the other sleeps. It's 12.30 AM now."

"If the phone beeps, the Hollow's out and is currently on dry land."

Ichigo nodded and took the watch and the spirit phone from her. He looked at her, and he saw the tired lines across her face. She was really worried for them, he knew that. She was really, really worried, and that made her exhausted from all the worrying she had to do.

"I'll keep watch first. You sleep."

Rukia grinned sleepily at him, and she couldn't help but be touched by his chivalry. She slouched over to sleep, her head in between her knees, and hands around her ankles.

His hands found their way to her shoulders and lifted her up gently.

His slight stammer showed that he was clearly embarrassed, but his tone showed that he was even more determined say what he wanted to say.

"Y-you can sleep on my shoulder, if you'd like."

Too tired to argue, too tired to hesitate, Kuchiki Rukia put her head on Ichigo's shoulder and drifted off into dreamland.

---

Karin opened her eyes sleepily as the girl in the blue nightgown tiptoed back into the room.

"Rukia?"

"_Pyon_-yes?"

Her questions were answered.

"It's okay. Go back to sleep."

Rukia-san wasn't in at the moment, she gathered. She was probably outside, keeping watch. If Rukia-san was outside, it meant that Ichi-nii was outside too. If the real Rukia-san didn't return by five, Karin would go outside, grab their collars and demand to know what was going on.

She set her alarm to 4.45AM, and slipped into an uneasy sleep filled with dreams of dark, dark water and red eyes that never seemed to close.

---

_We will continue to devour, endlessly without fail._

_Draw blood, tear humans to bloody pieces with our aching teeth and aching bones, to fill that ever-present desire for death. Every soul that is eaten means one more Hollow to join the ranks, to feast on the buffet of bloodlust._

_We will continue to devour._

The shadow with red pinpricks for eyes slithered on the sand, like a snake, and rose up, a myriad of waving tentacles and filth.

Red, blood red eyes filled with apparent malice snapped open in response to the wheedling, grainy voice of its underling.

_O Leader, a good time to attack would be…tomorrow._

Long, thin red fingers met each other in a twisted embrace as the shadow went spiraling off into the ground. A mouth of eerily white rectangular teeth stretched into a maniacal.

A chuckle.

_Kurosaki Ichigo…_

_Your soul shall be mine._

**to be continuedz.**

It's kind of obvious that there's a Hollow at the bottom of the lake at the moment, and that the Grand Fisher is behind everything. I hope it wasn't confusing, cause I was trying to dart back and forth between all the characters with spirit power. Yuzu can't see ghosts, so I suppose I'd have to count her out of that.

I'm so sorry. The title is pathetic. -weeps and moans-

If this chapter was the teeniest bit OOC (out of char), please R&R. I really do hate going out of char, especially with Ichigo, so please help me out here.

;redcheese


	6. History Repeats Itself

Chapter 6's up. I'm angry with kubo tite for making Renji the one who realized (about time) that Rukia was missing. bleach 148 lol for those who have no idea what I'm talking about. -mutters like how Ichigo mutters- and Ichigo didn't realize a thing! yes, I'm angry with kubo tite, but bleach roxxors anyway so I'll have to let him pass for that.

Oh yes, the chapter. We have an uninvited and undesirable guest, so get ready for that. Enjoy.

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 6: History Repeats Itself**

Karin's alarm beeped softly, and she slipped out past the sleeping goat-chin and pushed the front door open a crack and her eyes widened.

Ichi-nii was clearly asleep, his head and shoulders bent over, while Rukia-san sat up, back straight with poise. Their black kimonos were of not much surprise, but Karin marveled at the size of Ichi-nii's sword, which was strapped around his back and wrapped with white bandages.

It wasn't quite like Ichi-nii to keep secrets from her, and it hurt, but Karin could kind of understand why he didn't want to say anything.

_Shinigami._

The word was foreign, like it came out from one of her manga, but she had to face it when her brother and his friend were that word.

Karin went out to put her foot down on the stone step, and hesitated. Ichi-nii and Rukia-san were obviously keeping watch for whatever was in the lake, changing shifts; too. Whatever questions she had, she could ask later. Another time, when circumstances allowed it. She shivered a little when a chill wind blew past and around her, like a tentacle of some sort was wrapping itself around her. Rubbing her arms, Karin stepped back into the house and went to bed.

_It's cold out, Ichi-nii. Be careful._

---

Rukia awoke to Ichigo's warm hand on her shoulder, a signal to swap shifts. She rubbed her eyes as he shut his and went to sleep.

According to the light in the sky, it was about six. The night had gone without much event apart from the random stabs of reiatsu that came from the occasional ripples on the surface of Lake Kataguchi.

_Bastard._

The Grand Fisher was as disturbingly obnoxious as usual. Rukia took a deep breath of the crisp night air, clearing her sleep-fuzzed head almost instantly. She wished that Ichigo had managed to kill the Hollow so long ago, but what the hell was the use of dwelling on the past anyway. It didn't bring back the dead to life; it does nothing but make you all sullen and depressed. Good memories could be kept, but the bad…

Disappear. She was a Kuchiki, and there was no space in a Shinigami's duties for reminiscence.

She cast a sideways glance at the sleeping Ichigo beside her on the rock. He slept so quietly; he didn't stir or make random noises like some people did.

Rukia could admit that it was Ichigo's resemblance to Kaien-dono that drew her to him at first, but it wasn't what made her stick to him like the best buddies on earth in the end. It would do him great injustice, and it would cause her great pain.

Ichigo had a fair amount of Kaien-dono's features, and he had Kaien-dono's pride and his poignant stubborn air. They were the same, but they were different, too. Rukia didn't know how to put it into words, but she tried hard enough.

Ichigo was Ichigo; Kaien-dono was Kaien-dono. Kaien-dono was her mentor-friend, her older , her first love, but Kaien-dono loved Miyako-dono. Not Rukia. She was not suited for him, but maybe he was suited for her. And if Kaien-dono was happy, it was almost enough for Rukia.

On the other hand, Ichigo was different.

Ichigo was her friend, her partner, her bickering fiend. Kaien-dono didn't love her for sure, Rukia knew that, and she lived with that. But for Ichigo, she has no damned idea. Someone told her before that knowing was more painful than not knowing, but she had to disagree.

Guessing hurt more, because you wouldn't know what really _was_.

Plucking petals of flowers (not like Rukia ever did that), dreaming, wishing, hoping. To know that one had no chance is better than blind, failing hope that groped in the dark, because when that hope gets crushed, the person gets crushed twice over.

Rukia massaged her temples.

Thoughts, thoughts, glaciers of overflowing thoughts. It would be easier to not be so _human_, as Renji had hit the nail on the head, and carry out her duties as a Shinigami dutifully. But Ichigo had changed her, and that's what made him so different. He made her realize that nothing was impossible, like that sports ad she saw the other day on the Kurosaki box called the _television _that showed lots of things called _movies_.

See, she was more human than possible for a Shinigami.

Reiatsu hit her, and it reeked of Hollow more than usual, and she turned towards the lake to see a rather large ripple spreading itself out, smoothing itself out and all around. Her eyes narrowed, searching for any sign, any beeping from her Spirit Phone, but there was none.

Rukia felt Ichigo's head sag to rest on her shoulder, and she blinked and said nothing.

---

_The lake in the dark was perfect cover for hunting. The Leader said that all he wanted was the boy's soul, and he didn't give a fuck what happened to the girl._

_Tasty._

_The bait would work if one have an imprint of a living human, the Leader told him._ _Just summon your reiatsu, and you should be able to draw blood._

_If you can't make them bleed, die. The Leader has no use for you if you are weak._

_Think not, act swiftly. Cut, tear their souls and make them yours, for you live on hatred and filth, and you want them to bleed because they don't. Use the bait to trap one of them as a hostage. Stay in the lake; make the other one get you._

_The Leader's instructions were clear; the Leader's instructions were precise. Take a hostage. Make the other one get you. And kill._

_Go._

The eyes, glowing redder and brighter than ever, narrowed.

---

Rukia kept watch vigilantly. Her Shinigami training had sunk in well and good and she didn't doze off despite her exhaustion.

_If there are no signs yet, it means there will be a sign soon._

She looked up at the dark sky. Rain clouds had gathered, and even though it was fast approaching eight, the sky was freaking dark. Her spirit phone was silent as ever even though the pulses of reiatsu kept coming, faster, heavier, and she kept it in her pocket and looked up.

_What the…_

Karin was standing at the deep end of the lake, about fifty meters away. Rukia couldn't believe that she didn't sense Ichigo's sister walking past them. Exhaustion did many things to you even if you didn't doze off, and dulling your senses was one of those things.

"Karin-chan, what are you doing up so early?"

Karin gave no answer, standing still as ever, looking out across the lake like some sort of scarecrow. Rukia got up, and thunder snarled a low snarl above them, waking Ichigo. He rubbed his eyes and stared after her and Karin.

Ichigo's mouth opened in a silent 'o'.

_Wait, wait, Rukia-_

"Karin-chan?"

Karin started to fall forward into the lake, her eyes blank, and Rukia started running, without thinking of anything except _oh my god Ichigo's sister, what the hell is she doin-_

Ichigo yelled after her, running, with all the shunpo that he could muster, blind panic setting in, as flashes of scenes assaulted him brutally. Something so familiar, something so goddamn and obscenely familiar-

He stumbled, picked himself up and ran harder.

"RUKIA!!!"

_The little girl in white with the bobbed hair, the pavement, the train, the rain, the thunder that sounded back bouncing in and out of his ears then and now, the rain, the rain, the rain, THE RAIN-_

_Oka-san, his Oka-san, so beautiful in her lavender sweater and her smile meant just for him, him running towards the little girl in white with bobbed hair in the downpour and she __**disappeared**__-_

"_Ichigo, no!"_

"RUKIA, NO!!!"

Rukia heard Ichigo just after she reached Karin, Karin who was falling into the pond at eight o'clock in the morning in her pyjamas, she heard him yelling at her to stop saving Karin.

_What for-_

Karin turned around, smiling, and her face seemed to change, like static. There was a flash of lightning, then Karin's face wasn't Karin's face anymore, it was the face of-

_BAIT._

"RUKIA, NO!!!"

Karin disappeared, along with Rukia, along with a scream.

---

Ichigo fell to his knees, staring at the blank space by the river where Rukia had been, his eyes wide and unblinking. He choked; vaguely feeling the rain beating big, fat unforgiving drops down onto his back.

"R-Rukia."

_What the hell are you doing? Get her back! Get up, and get her back!_

Get her back. He gritted his teeth, and got up.

Ichigo grabbed the hilt of Zangetsu.

Rukia was in the lake.

Rukia had told him (another pang hit him at the thought of her, and he struggled to beat it down.) never to go into the lake. He had to force the beast out from the depths before he could have an even, possibly an advantaged battle with it. Ichigo forced himself to think clearly. Think like…think like…

_Think like Rukia._

Since he couldn't go into the water, he would have to make the Hollow come out of the water.

Since the Hollow wouldn't want to come out of the water, he would have to-

The logic was painfully obvious. Why the hell had they waited so long, they could have killed the bastard before it - stop.

He would get rid of all the water.

Ichigo raised Zangetsu, and he felt the exhilarating rush of power as his eyes turned to neon, piercing blue as he brought his sword down. The calm sensation, the feeling of confidence as the power rushed through his veins was unexpected, but he took it, and he used it to his advantage.

_I would never slip up bad enough for you to worry._

"Getsuga Tenshou."

The glowing blue arc hit the dark water with tremendous force, right in the middle; a bull's-eye. Ichigo heard Zangetsu O-san for one brief moment.

_Well done, Ichigo. The determination -- you've got it now._

The water spun around like a whirlpool from the direct hit, and erupted, spewing everywhere, frothing, frothing dark water; all over. Like a tornado gone wrong. Luckily, the summer house was far away from the Lake enough that the water couldn't reach it. The trees groaned from all that water, but the tough pine withstood it while the smaller trees crackled and bent over, succumbing.

Ichigo clenched his fingers tight around Zangetsu's hilt, and waited.

**to be continued.**

Right, I'm going on holiday on 23rd Nov, so this fic will be on hiatus till I get back about six days later.

Yes! Yes, a cliffie! I'm so evil. I didn't know how to continue, so I suppose you'd rather read this now then wait for me to figure out how to finish this. It's got a decent number of words, almost 2k, so please pardon me.

I kind of liked the panicky part. You?

;redcheese


	7. Out Of The Frying Pan & Into The Fire

YAY, chapter seven. I went to Bangkok! And shopping is goooood. I did my hair, now 1/3 of my head has corn rows. but I think you didn't want to know that. -makes some sort of obsessed noise-

okay okay fanfiction time. :D

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 7: Out Of The Frying Pan & Into The Fire**

The water gurgled and churned, what was left of it settling with much complaint back into the lake. It was hard to see; the rain seemed to have a personal mission to pound itself into the depths of his eyeballs.

_Oka-san-_

He tried to block out the unwanted onslaught of persistent, prodding memories, but it was easier said than done. But he knew if something happened to Rukia he'd never forgive himself. He had been too late to save her, to grab her obi and yank her back, or even take the blow for her-

Reiatsu pulsed again, distorting the atmosphere, clogging it with the stench of Hollow. Ichigo held Zangetsu at ready, scanning the huge crater for-

There!

There was a huge rock pole, higher than some of the pines in the forest, in the middle of the crater of a lake, and on it-

_Rukia_.

Ichigo's breath caught in his throat.

He couldn't see her very well, but he could see some black, slimy sheet of some sort wrapped around her midsection, arms, ankles and zanpakuto.

Ichigo could see her wide, determined eyes, burning dark violet, and they bored into him; they begged him not to die.

"RUKIA!"

She opened her mouth as if to call out to him and the black shit binding her seemed to tighten its hold tenfold, forcing her to double over on her knees as a roar broke the silence and the unforgiving thud-thud-thud of the rain.

_What the fucking hell-_

A nasal, sexless voice, grinding; like nails crushed with a pestle-

"_Kurosaki Ichigo._"

Ichigo started, looking desperately towards the bottom of the huge rock pole for an answer-

"_I have come for your soul, for the Leader; Grand Fisher._"

It was an octopus. It was black, black with the reek of Hollow that _Rukia _always talked about. It had so many tentacles; how many were there? He could barely even see through the storm of cold, sharp needles of reprimand, let alone count. What he could make out was a round, light bulb shaped head that seemed absolutely _huge_, with large yellow eyes.

The rain fell heavier now.

"_Let me take you, and I will let the girl go._"

Ichigo knew it was lying, lying through the smog of Hollow stench that clogged your nose and your throat and brought up bad, bad memories that burned your eyes-

"You can tell your Leader to go to hell."

Ichigo had never seen an octopus smile before; impossibly white teeth mocked him.

"_Oh? So you knew I lied._"

It brought Rukia down from the rock, her legs dangling in midair, grinning lewdly still. The Hollow's arm, still wrapped around her, started shifting towards her neck, brushing her across chest purposefully as it went. Ichigo's eyes narrowed.

"_We'll have to do this my way, then, brat._"

---

Ryouuhei awoke with a jolt, sweating all over. The disturbing feeling was here again, but this time, it had mounted to something near humid suffocation. He crawled over to Ichigo-san and shook him.

No response. It was like shaking a dead body, all cold and still.

"Ichigo-san?"

He was about get Ichigo-san's dad when he heard the roar.

Bolting out from the room and towards the front door, Ryouuhei nearly slammed into Ichigo's black-haired little sister, Karin-san. She was standing there, staring towards the lake with wide eyes and shivering from the suffocating blanket of whatever there was.

"Karin-san, what are--oh my god."

The lake was completely empty, a huge bowl crater, except for a few meters of water at the bottom. There was a tall rock pole thing that had been deceivingly covered by the water, and at the bottom of the lake-

_An outline of a monster._

---

Karin's fists tightened.

Ichi-nii was fighting something to save Rukia-san, something evil, with his big sword like a cleaver and his weird black kimono. He would get busted up, he would bleed, and he would _win_, yet-

Yet she could do nothing.

---

Ichigo raised his zanpakuto and brought it down, hard, on one of the many waving tentacles before speeding away again. The Hollow was fast; it had good control over its arms. Each of its tentacles had a layer of hardened skin, and the weak point was the underside, where all the potent suckers were.

It was like fighting a black, oily version of Byakuya's Senbonzakura, and Ichigo knew that Bankai would clean it up nicely. But Bankai was dangerous, and he very much knew why.

Two arms shot towards him, their intent clear, one from his left and one from his right, and he evaded them with a swift dive downwards, dragging the sharp edge of Zangetsu along the soft, fleshy underside of another tentacle that came for him, suckers pulsating.

Blood spurted out, red; like the skin of apples, and the Hollow roared and recoiled in pain, giving Ichigo another chance, and he took it. Kicking off the invisible road of reiatsu he managed to make, Ichigo plunged into the mass of squelching arms with Zangetsu all at the ready to _cut_, severing at least five.

The black arms fell into the water with heavy splashes; the Hollow twisted and cursed.

Ichigo swept up into the sky, riding with shunpo on the trail of reiatsu, and dived like a falcon towards the arm that held Rukia. She looked up at him, wide-eyed, begging him not to die; not to come to save her like this, but why? He was surely going to win-

Ichigo sliced another arm that was in the way into two, with blood pounding in his ears. The time it took to get to her felt like _years_, and Ichigo raised Zangetsu to release her, he stretched out his left arm to save her, and-

The girl _in white with bobbed hair _appeared in front of him, sickly lilac eyes with black pupils staring right at him. Ichigo lurched, frozen, and the girl smiled, the sides of the lilac eyes crinkling at him; and that was all he could take, and he could almost feel the vomit rising in his throat-

_Oka-san, why aren't you moving?_

Laughter rang in his ears as the girl came closer and closer to him, floating in mid-air with her white cloak whipping around in the wind, raising her arms in a twisted greeting, smiling-

_Oka-san, why can't _I _move?_

The tentacles came out of nowhere; there were at least five of them, soaked with blood and the rain hammering down on his head and his back, and he-

_Oka-san._

---

Ryouuhei stepped backwards, horrified, as a blurred copy of Ichigo-san hurtled towards the ground, he could see the blood and the mud and-

"Ryouuhei-san."

Ichigo-san's little sister looked up at him, her expression resilient, a splitting image of her brother.

"Ichi-nii will be okay."

---

Rukia felt the black tentacles that were wrapped around her body loosen a little, and she wriggled her right arm, searching for Shirayuki's hilt. Ichigo was hurt, and he would get up again; but she _had to freaking help_. The Hollow had been overconfident as usual, and it hadn't tied her wrists together with its arms. Instead, she had been wrapped with something like a black, slimy blanket of ink, and held in midair with a tentacle.

That meant that she could move just a bit.

Kidou was an option, but the Hollow would squeeze her to death before she could complete the spell, and she doubted that a spell without the incantation would be strong enough to break through the tough arms.

She had seen the damned doll that the Grand Fisher used, and she had known that the Hollow would bring out its ace in the hole when all was about to be lost; she hated not being able to warn him. Her fingers brushed the hilt, and she pushed her hand forwards even more desperately.

_Come on, Ichigo._

---

Ichigo got up, cursing, as a streak of pain went through his jaw. Nothing was broken, but there was the possibility of a dislocated jaw, and his mouth was full of blood. He spat it all out, wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

That bastard brought out its best weapon at the last moment, eh.

He had no time to react, but now he had time to calm himself down. Ichigo felt the memories subside, leaving a dull ache in his chest, and he raised his chin. When there was someone to be saved, there was no time for pansy-ass reminiscence. He could do that later; but not now.

Ichigo looked up. He had flown a rather long distance, and now he was back on the edge of the lake. The rain was still there, reminding him, but the downpour had lightened a little.

He took it as encouragement.

The Hollow was crouched where it had been all along, in a pool of rainwater, and it had lost about half its arms. It had had to have at least forty of those things.

Ichigo gritted his teeth and tightened his hold on Zangetsu's hilt. No more wheedling about Oka-san; she wouldn't have wanted him to wheedle about her giving her life for him. She would have wanted him to be focused on saving Rukia.

The girl in white with the bobbed hair had disappeared, but Ichigo was definite that the Hollow would bring it out again.

_Focus._

He sped towards the Hollow with all the shunpo that he could muster, and as expected, the girl appeared in front of him again. Ichigo swallowed the panic, and dived, evading the arms that came his way. He flash-stepped again, this time towards the monster's armour plated head, digging the edge of Zangetsu as hard as he could and dragging it along the flesh for about a few meters before he zipped away again. Ichigo could tell that the cut was deep from the blood and the roar in his ears, but it wasn't deep enough.

As he dived, dodged, cut and stabbed, trying to reach her, he saw the edge of Rukia's zanpakuto sheath moving. Ichigo darted in front of her, caught her eye, and realized what he had to do.

_Give her room._

Ichigo flash-stepped to a space between the myriad of at least ten tentacles and lingered for a split second more, teeth gritted in concentration. The arms came for him, the girl with lilac eyes and bobbed hair came for him, and he ran. Before the Hollow knew what was happening, he used Zangetsu to slice the tentacle that was holding Rukia into half. There was another layer of black stuff around Rukia, and Ichigo slid Zangetsu along her side as lightly as he could.

There was a scream of fury as Rukia slipped free, clutching her zanpakuto, and landed beside Ichigo in mid-air.

"Ichigo."

"Yeah?"

"My turn for revenge."

"Just don't die."

"Bastard."

Rukia cracked her knuckles the best she could while holding a sword in her hands, and darted forward. Her shunpo skills were really good, and she was nimble due to her pint sized frame.

Ichigo suppressed a snigger.

Rukia drew Shirayuki and did as Ichigo had done, dragging the blade along the underside of a tentacle, relishing the sound of the blade cutting through flesh. After a few clean dodges and swipes, she decided to end things.

Knowing that he knew she knew he was watching her, Rukia took her stance.

"Mae, Sode No Shirayuki."

The Hollow's eyes widened, and it sent all of its arms towards her, hurtling at top speed.

"Some No Mai -"

Rukia held her chin high with satisfaction of triumph, as a Kuchiki always did.

"Tsukishiro!"

She turned away, not needing to watch as the Hollow was obliterated by the cylinder of ice that rushed eagerly to meet the sky.

Sheathing her sword, Rukia landed beside Ichigo.

"Flashy job. Could've done better than that."

Her mouth dropped open.

"I was almost eaten, and that's all you can say?"

"Well, you weren't, so there's nothing to be so hyped up about!"

"Well, _you _went all scared and shaky when the Grand Fisher's bait appeared!"

Ichigo was about to make a retort, but then he stopped and stared at her, eyes dark.

"You don't fucking know, Rukia."

She stopped, mouth half open, realizing what she said.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid girl-_

He shoved his hands into his hakama and turned away. Ryouuhei and Karin were at the doors staring at them. Ryouuhei looked completely and utterly shocked while Karin wore an expression that was a mix of relief and apprehension, but Ichigo just walked past them and into the house.

Rukia dug mechanically in her pockets for the Memory Modifier. She clicked it, and Ryouuhei blinked in confusion before falling flat on his face.

Karin didn't.

Karin looked down at her feet and back up at Rukia again, her face blank and expressionless. And then she turned around, like her brother had done, and went back into the house.

Rukia sank to her knees and put her head in her hands.

_Stupid, stupid girl._

**to be continuedz**

A cliffie after a cliffie! I'm sorry, it was impulsive and I couldn't fight the temptation for cliffies. I'll be back much earlier, I promise. I wouldn't mind reviews, either. If the sentences are screwed for the action and stuff, or grammar's off, please forgive me. It's 12AM and I'm exhausted. so good night/morning to y'all.

;redcheese


	8. Something Interesting

Yess! Chapter eight. I guess this is to make up for the evil cliffhangers and my holiday. So, uh, chapter eight presents itself to you. It was so hard to write, my writers block kept acting up. Much apologies.

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 8: Something Interesting**

Ichigo stared at the ceiling, trying not to listen to the drumming of the rain on the roof.

_Why say that, of all things._

_Even if she obviously didn't mean it._

_Fucking pride won't budge._

He heard the door open with a creak, familiar footsteps and a dragging of a body across the wooden floor. The body was deposited, and Ichigo, hearing the footsteps pad towards him, kept his eyes firmly on the ceiling.

A sharp intake of breath, three long seconds, and the footsteps went out the door.

The door shut, and the rain fell harder than ever.

---

Ryouuhei-san woke everyone up the next morning, talking about a huge tornado that sucked up all the water in the lake. It was three quarters full now, thanks to the extremely heavy downpour that lasted all night.

Goat-chin told everyone that would listen about how the beauty of his three daughters chased the tornado away while Yuzu and Risako-chan made breakfast.

Ichi-nii downed his cereal and toast in seconds and stomped out, muttering something about going for a walk.

Karin watched Rukia-san watch him walk out.

---

After breakfast, Rukia let herself be dragged by Yuzu, Ryouuhei and Risako for a swim. Karin trudged behind them in her bike shorts, silent and brooding.

Her side hurt; a mild, throbbing pain, though there was no wound. Rukia figured that when Ichigo used his zanpakuto to free her from the sheet of ink, he had accidentally skimmed her flesh and her kimono as well. Wounds on a spiritual body didn't show in a gigai, but the wound hurt all the same.

Her head hurt, too.

She wore a big shirt over her swimming costume. It was cold out because of the rain, and she could see the gouge marks in the crater where Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou had made its mark. Making a mental note to heal her wound whenever she had the chance to get out of the gigai, Rukia sat at the side of the lake, her toes inches away from the water.

"May I sit here?"

She looked up. Ryouuhei beamed down at her.

"Oh. Go ahead."

_It was your fault._

_But I didn't mean it! Why the hell did he have to be so sensitive in the first place?_

"Cold day."

"I guess."

_You_ know_ he hates talking about his mother's death._

_Yes, but-_

"School's starting in a month for you, right?"

_Your retort was uncalled for, anyway. It wasn't fair._

"Yep."

_But- okay._

_Apologize._

"We'll see each other soon after this vacation, hopefully."

_As long as he even cares._

Rukia looked out towards the cluster of pine trees. She could feel his scowl from here.

"Maybe."

---

Ichigo picked a tree, and sat down in front of it. He had a clear view of the lake from here, and he could pick out Ryouuhei splashing water at Risako and his sisters. Rukia was sitting alone.

_Forgive her already._

_Yeah, and you owe her an apology for being too damn sensitive about your pride and shit._

_No apology. Forgiving is enough._

_Apology._

_No! _

_Fuck you, look at her._

…_Dammit._

He rubbed his eyes. Thinking was good for one's mental sanity, even if it made you as confused as hell, and people who didn't do a lot of that, like Keigo, were branded as unstable.

It wasn't as if they had been misjudged, anyway.

---

Isshin relaxed on the sofa, remembering the message Urahara had sent him at precisely 7:46AM.

_Your son did a good job. Kuchiki-san did a good job too._

He took a sip of his coffee.

_Looks like the Grand Fisher's put another score to settle on his tab._

Isshin grinned.

"I have a talented son…"

---

Dinner was a jovial affair, with Yuzu and Risako dolling out stew with potatoes and bowlfuls of rice. Isshin goofed around by stuffing a carrot up his nose, and Karin told him that at this rate, she'd rather enter herself into an orphanage. It resulted in him bawling his ass off and turning to Ichigo for solace.

"My daughters have abandoned me!! My beautiful son, take me in, for I have no home and no love!"

Ichigo snarled.

"I am not beautiful, you goddamn piece of-"

"You show your love in peculiar ways, my son!"

"Shut up!"

He looked around for a weapon and settled on slamming a potato into his old man's face. In the tumult of everyone being distracted by Isshin's bawling and Yuzu's attempts to pacify her father, Ichigo's eyes met Rukia's.

Karin watched them.

_Come on, Ichi-nii._

They stared at each other, eyes locked, and time froze just for the two of them.

After what felt like a hundred years, Ichigo attempted a lopsided grin. Rukia's mouth opened just a little, their eyes on no one else. Ichigo's grin faded, and-

"YOU DROPPED YOUR GUARD, MY SON!"

Ichigo dodged the volley of carrots that was aimed cleverly at his head, and looked back at Rukia. The moment was lost, but she smiled back, eyes dancing at him.

"Great dinner."

Ichigo's grin returned, and he looked back at her.

"Yeah."

Karin suppressed an amused smile.

At least the cold war was over.

---

It was about 10PM when everyone had showered and retired to their respective sleeping venues. Rukia muttered something about going to the toilet and Karin decided that the Rukia who was going to be padding a little too softly back into the room wouldn't really be Rukia.

Ichigo, meanwhile, sensed Rukia's reiatsu out in the front lawn from his room.

Well, they _did_ need to talk. If she didn't want to -- he'd just say his piece and leave. If she didn't want to talk, there was nothing he could do about it except to talk for himself. Not wanting to talk wasn't the same as not wanting to listen.

He pressed the Substitute Shinigami badge against his chest, straightened his hakama and plodded out, stooping a little to make sure he didn't slam Zangetsu's hilt into the door frame.

Walking past a snoring Isshin, Ichigo pushed the door open with a little creak. He peered out, but Rukia was nowhere in sight. Feeling for ribbons of her reiatsu, he followed the trail along the curve of the lake. Her reiatsu pulsed, and Ichigo saw a little glowing light amongst the pines.

She was sitting near the spot that he had sat at during his walk, her hands pressed against her side, biting her lip in concentration.

"Rukia?"

She jumped; eyes wide and on him. The glow died away.

"I-Ichigo."

"What's that?"

"Nothing."

He walked over until he was right beside her, eyebrows creased. He was worried.

"That's kidou, right?"

"N-Yes. It's nothing to be worried about."

She kept her body at an angle to him, as though she didn't want him to see something.

"Face me."

Teeth bared, she edged away, and comprehension seemed to dawn on his face.

"Why the fuck should I?"

He grabbed her shoulders, twisting her towards him a bit more roughly than he intended, and she winced.

_Before the Hollow knew what was happening, he used Zangetsu to slice the tentacle that was holding Rukia into half. There was another layer of black stuff around Rukia, and Ichigo slid Zangetsu along her side as lightly as he could._

The side of Rukia's kimono was slit cleanly, and there was blood. The cut was a neat, smooth line along the curve of her waist and hip, and the dried blood was crusted around it.

Ichigo couldn't believe that he'd been so stupid as to not have noticed it.

"It was an accident."

Her tone was harsh, clipped, and her teeth were gritted tightly together.

"There's nothing to worry about. It won't kill me."

He let go of her shoulders.

"You still should have told me."

Her eyes were silent, pleading, even though her voice was rough and she kept pushing him away; both hands on his chest, pushing hard.

"It doesn't matter."

"I injured you."

"I don't care."

"I do!"

She stopped, and so did he, both of them, eyes on nothing but each other. Ichigo waited for her to say something, but she just looked at him, her eyes yielding nothing, no answers.

"I'm sorry."

Her gaze softened, and her shoulders relaxed visibly. Her breath that she appeared to have been holding in was let out in one long _woosh_.

"I'm sorry too."

Rukia let out a nervous smile, and she was both pleased and relieved to see him return it. They stood there, staring at each other for a while.

Ichigo broke the silence first, sheepishly. He gestured towards her wound.

"May I?"

She moved over to the bottom of another tree, where the moonlight was a little bit brighter for him to see.

"I suppose. Don't poke it."

He grinned at her.

"I'll try to cause you grievous hurt."

Rukia rolled her eyes.

Ichigo's eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. His fingers brushed her side, gently, and she gasped.

"What, that hurt?"

Rukia narrowed her eyes at him.

"...No."

He grimaced.

"Then don't make weird noises."

_We're really close right now._

His face was right next to hers, as he pushed aside the torn cloth and pressed his fingers against her flesh. She could feel his light breathing tickling her collarbone and her neck.

Ichigo, on the other hand, didn't actually know what kind of emotions he was inflicting at the moment. Her wound seemed rather light, and it wasn't bleeding anymore. If only he could practice kidou. It seemed like a rather awkward angle for self-healing if his opinion was to be asked.

He sat up, and she _almost _felt disappointed.

"Your wound seems fine."

She rubbed her eyes at him, and sighed. Ichigo studied her for a while.

"I never really told you about, you know, Oka-san."

Rukia shrugged.

"I figured that you'd tell me when you felt like it."

"How about now?"

"Sure. I'll think of it as a late night story."

He aimed a swipe to miss at her, and they sat down on a spot that wasn't so damp from the rain.

"So…I'll start now."

She gave him an encouraging smile; just for him.

"Go ahead."

Ichigo then plunged into the unfamiliar sea of confidantes.

"I was nine. Oka-san was bringing me back from the dojo, and it was raining."

The memory of rain still plagued him. Rukia saw it, and she understood.

"We were walking along the road; next to the river, somewhere near the train station."

"As we were walking, I saw - I saw a girl, at the side of the river."

He grimaced, and she reached for his hand. His hands were shaking.

"She wore white, and-"

He paused, jaw clenched, and Rukia squeezed his hand.

"And - and she had black, bobbed hair. She was falling forwards, into the lake."

Rukia nodded, comprehending. _Karin started to fall forward into the lake, her eyes blank-_

"You ran to save her."

His pain was bare now, naked, and she could feel it coursing through him.

"She vanished." His voice cracked, but he didn't bother hiding it.

"And when I turned around-"

"Oka-san was-"

Face contorted, teeth clenched, his hand like a vice around Rukia's but she didn't care. He was like a little boy now, curled up in a ball with his knees to his chest and his hand in hers but Rukia didn't care.

"Blood, all over, and not moving-"

_Where did you go, Oka-san?_

He opened his eyes and stared right into hers, and his pain was so _much _that she felt herself hurting for him, too.

"And when the Grand Fisher came the other time I couldn't fucking _kill him_, it wasn't enough-"

Ichigo's shoulders shook, and he choked his words out; painful word by painful word.

"And Oka-san said - she didn't blame me, that she was proud to - have met me-"

Rukia put her arms around him, using her free hand to press his head gently into her shoulders. He was muffled against her, his arms moving desperately up to hold on to her like she was his only lifeline in the world.

"Why the fuck did she say that; when - when I was the one who was tricked, who led her to _die like that_-"

Ichigo pulled away, and

"It was _my_ fault, _all my fault _and I killed Oka-san, Rukia, _I killed her-_"

"Ichigo!"

He was almost yelling now, his voice hoarse with desperation, and Rukia didn't know what to do, not at all. 

"And when the Hollow took you, I wouldn't have let myself go for letting the same thing happen another goddamn time and-"

"Ichigo, stop!"

"Oka-san, where the hell did you go? I searched the whole riverbank for you, but I couldn't find you anywhere, _Oka-san_, I couldn't-"

Rukia, in all desperation, put her hands on his face and pressed her lips against his almost violently; desperate for him to stop.

Ichigo froze. He stiffened in her arms, eyes wide open, and she pulled away, blushing crimson as he stared at her. Shock, anger, or surprise, she couldn't tell. She couldn't read his expression like she always was able to, and it scared her.

Folding her hands in her lap, Rukia looked down at her crossed legs. Her cheeks felt really, really warm, and she could feel Ichigo's stare boring into her.

"S-sorry."

When he didn't reply, she looked up at him, afraid of what she might see. He appeared confused, and maybe something else.

"You kissed me."

Rukia fiddled with the folds of her shihakusho, not daring to look back at him.

"Oh."

For a moment, he didn't say anything else.

_Shit. _

"I'm sorry. I'll g-go. Now."

She pushed herself off the ground with one hand, standing on both feet now and feeling much more clear-headed. Turned to walk away in the opposite direction as quickly as she could, she made a mental note to dunk her head in the lake and wonder why she had been _so freaking stupid_-

His hand closed around her wrist, firmly, but not tightly enough to hurt.

"Rukia."

She turned around, and he was standing up directly in front of her. His hands moved from her wrist to her shoulders, his eyes dark.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

Rukia couldn't read his expression; it still scared her. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up like someone had pressed down madly on the accelerator, and his gaze intensified, boring into her.

"I'm sor-"

He cut her off brusquely.

"I didn't ask for an apology. I asked you why you did that."

"I don't kn-"

"Rukia."

He said her name like it was the only word he could think about, like it was another part of her that he could hold on to; secretly. She felt his slight desperation, his determination, and Rukia bent her head, lowering her eyelids.

"Because - because I wanted to."

Rukia looked back up at him, not knowing what else to say.

He was already close, but she didn't expect him to be able to get anycloser. His face (his lips) was less than an inch away, and she was pressed up against his chest and backed up against a tree at the same time. Rukia could feel her heart going _thud-thud-thud_; or was it his?

She couldn't seem to stop looking up at him.

Ichigo's eyes were hooded too, like hers, and his nose brushed hers briefly as he bent forwards a little bit more. His hand came up to touch her cheekbone lightly; almost shyly, brushing over her jawbone. _What irony, what cheek_, she thought dazedly. _He had been too audacious already, trapping her indecently like that. What would Nii-sama say? _Rukia blinked, still unable to tear her eyes away from his.

"If you don't want this, you can always say no."

Trust Ichigo to attempt to be respectful at this point in time. Rukia didn't see the need to respond, and he was so close that she could count his eyelashes. He did have some nice eyelashes, Rukia observed vaguely, her knees shaking just a little. She had felt little chills from the night's temperature, but now she felt perfectly _warm_.

And she did feel like kissing him. Right now.

Ichigo, as if reading her mind, brought his face to hers at an extremely familiar angle that she had seen in the movies all the time. His breath touched her skin, as gentle as a light, light breeze and she shivered.

"Ichigo-"

"Shut up."

He leaned in and-

_Oh._

**to be continuedz**

YAY. and that is all I have to say. adios.

;redcheese


	9. Together

Chapter 9! And lol, I do have to apologize for the number of cliffies that were clearly uncalled for. For my penance I'll try to make this chapter good. Enjoy.

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 9: Together**

A light touch of his lips to hers, lingering there for a second or two, and that was heaven enough for her.

_Tingles._

Rukia kept her eyes closed to stop herself from doing anything else that was deemed as _baka_, feeling her heart ricochet insanely about her ribcage. If she opened her eyes, she might run. If she opened her eyes, she might kiss him.

Ichigo's hand rested gently on her back, and his eyes were all for her. He brought his free hand up and put its fingers to her cheek. _So smooth_, he thought vaguely, his thumb skating in an arc over the bridge of her nose; counting her eyelashes.

He was glad she hadn't hit him yet, for he was as nervous as hell.

It was true that he was 'extremely, no, completely deprived of action' (quote stupid dad) for his age, but that didn't mean that he was absolutely clueless. Keigo had shared his numerous (possibly fantasized) experiences with girls of all sorts loudly and with glee, while Mizuiro had a fair few stories to tell as well.

One could hear many things with one's hands over one's ears.

Rukia made a soft humming noise as he stroked her hair, and she opened her left eye to look at him. Ichigo put his hand to her cheek again, not really knowing what to do, and he took a few seconds to find that his last finger fit perfectly against the line of her jaw. She shut the eye and hummed softly again.

Contrary to popular belief, Ichigo did have hormones. But it wasn't until now that he had managed to find an _appropriate _situation to act on them.

Since she didn't seem like she wanted to hit him…

His thumb outlined the tired bags of her eyes, and he pinched her cheek lightly between his index finger and his thumb, always stroking, always appreciating the smoothness of her face. Grainy warmth rose in Rukia's stomach, and she hummed.

"Does your wound still hur-OW."

This time, she really did hit him. Her hand delivered itself to his stomach, and he doubled over.

"I told you not to feel guilty about it."

He rolled his eyes at her and put his hand to her waist, fingers dancing around the bare skin of her wound; making her gasp aloud. He didn't care if she hit him this time, he didn't give a damn.

"I'm not."

Ichigo angled his head to hers, his other hand (he seemed to have so many of them) finding the perfect place along the line of her jaw again. Rukia reached down to touch the hand that was against her waist, breaths short and fast.

Her eyes were shut now, one hand on his and the other around his neck. Ichigo moved closer still, his nose now against her cheek with their lips _just touching_; a teaser. It was a subtle message of _if you don't want it, you can always move away_, but Rukia ignored it. She closed the distance, desperately, and he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her.

They were clumsy, for it was their first real kiss, more of bumping their lips and faces together than actually _kissing_, but they didn't care. The nervousness was gone, and there was only passion.

Ichigo ran a hand through her hair, and she let out a short, coarse exhalation of breath from the back of her throat that just made him kiss her harder.

Rukia didn't taste of peaches and warm honey and sunflowers (_what did sunflowers taste like anyway_?), he wondered in a haze, breaking the kiss just long enough to move both hands up to hold her face to his before diving back into the fray with her again. She tasted like how he thought Rukia should taste, and it was perfect.

He moved from her lips to her cheek and to her nose, light, gentle kisses all over her face. Venturing a bit lower than her jaw, he pressed his lips to the (smooth) skin of her neck, and she pulled away, a panicky 'no' written all over her.

Murmuring a soft apology, he sat on the grass and pulled her down with him so that she was half-sitting on his lap. Her breaths were heavy and his were too, but that wasn't going to stop anything. He kissed her cheeks, her nose, her lips and the lids of her eyes while Rukia ran her fingers up and down his back.

When they parted after what seemed like a hell of a long time, her face was flushed pink and they were both breathing hard. He touched her lower lip with the tip of his index finger and she hugged him, burying her head in his chest.

Ichigo, in turn, buried his face in her hair. Her hair smelled really good, and he prayed to whatever god was up there that Rukia didn't have dandruff.

They sat there for a long, long time.

Rukia mumbled something that was muffled against him, and Ichigo pulled away.

"Did you say something?"

She looked at him, her mouth set in a straight line; defiance radiating off the whites of her eyes. It was an expression that she had unknowingly stolen from him, from all the time they had spent together, without realizing it.

"Where do we go from here?"

Ichigo pressed his lips against her forehead, his eyes shut. It was an inevitable question that he had to face and eventually had to answer. Their lives were so complicated, so overlapping, that they were virtually forced to see each other everyday. The Shinigami world was deadly efficient, and there would definitely be issues with such a relationship. And there was the problem of his Hollow.

He was interested to see what Byakuya would have to say about this_ issue_.

But there are always other times for long, serious talks with Rukia about this, and this was not the time. He put his hands on her shoulders and locked eyes with her. She raised her chin slightly and nodded, reading his mind.

She understood; for they were so compatible and yet so unfortunately not. 

But both of them would knock down the barriers that stood up to confront them. Ichigo had his power, and Rukia had her iron will. Together they could, and together, they definitely _would_.

---

It was about nearing twelve when they decided that they should leave.

_Lord, it's only been two hours?_

And they had somehow covered so much ground that they had been itching to discuss.

She had plucked up her courage and told him about Kaien-dono, and he had listened. She didn't have to be guilty about that ever again, he told her. Kaien-dono wouldn't have wanted her to mope about him and break herself over and over again about it, so she should just get it off her chest and move on.

It was funny how Ichigo had fit that all snugly in a nutshell and clamped the lid shut.

They pushed the front door open with a little creak. Isshin was sprawled out on the sofa, snoring, and Rukia restrained a giggle while Ichigo grumbled. He walked her to the room with his sisters in it, their socked feet padding noiselessly on the wooden floor.

Rukia put her hand on the doorknob and grinned at him. She tiptoed, craning her neck up.

One quick kiss, or maybe two; and they parted ways in the dark corridor.

---

The door creaked open, and Karin forced her eyes open.

Rukia-san was in her weird black kimono again. It was even weirder seeing two identical Rukia-sans right beside each other. Rukia-san got back into her body (Karin wrinkled her nose at the idea) with a smooth motion, and a little green pill rolled onto the floor.

After a while, Rukia-san was fast asleep in between Karin and Yuzu. Karin got up to peer at her.

The girl was _smiling_.

Karin smothered her grin in the pillow.

_Ichi-nii, score!_

**to be continuedz**

YES. THE KISSIES. -drools-  
I'm sorry for the long wait. This chapter is short, yes, but it was really hard to type. I have no other excuses, apart from that one. Score, Ichigo, score:D One last chapter, which will most probably be a wrapping-up-chapter with a fair few conclusions. Thanks to all my reviewers for your support.  
And please critique the kissies. I haven't written one ever.

;redcheese


	10. Finality & Inhibitions

last chapter here. a very, very long wait for you readers, and I apologize. I was watching some Korean drama serial thing (Witch Yoo-hee) and you know how those clingy drama serials are like. -winks conspirationally-

well. heads up for the cheese.

**The Wilderness Is Dangerous**

**Chapter 10: Young Love **

**15 July, Sunday**

The Satoshi children had finished packing by the time breakfast was ready. Yuzu dished out pancakes, and Ichigo attempted to appear grumpy. Isshin, as usual, tried to stuff a pancake down Ichigo's shirt.

He failed.

Meanwhile, Rukia couldn't figure out why Karin _kept _mouthing 'score!' and sneaking bright grins at her. It was so…weird. It was as if the kid somehow _knew _about something.

When the plates were washed, Yuzu and Risako put their little arms around each other and bid farewell to their best cooking partner ever. They would _so _keep in touch, Risako blurted out in between hearty sobs. Yuzu agreed amidst all their wailing.

Ryouuhei appeared a little embarrassed. He picked up his and his sister's bag, smiling.

"We'll be going now, I guess."

He bowed, and so did a teary-eyed Risako. They pushed open the door and stepped out. Then, they were gone.

---

Ichigo zipped up Rukia's luggage and set it on the floor. She tugged his sleeve, peering up at him.

"Huh?"

"Can we sit at the lake for a while?"

Ichigo put his left hand in his pocket and touched her cheek with the fingers of his right.

"Sure."

---

The lake looked normal, like nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened before, but both of them knew anyway.

They sat down at the spot where they had kept watch just two nights before.

"Ichigo."

He turned to her, half-knowing what she was going to ask seconds before she did. Not just because she had already asked the question before, but also because he himself wanted to know the answer.

"Where do we go from here?"

No questions whether he loved her, or even whether he _meant _what had happened in the first place. Not that he minded; but it made him realize even more that she knew him so well that she could read him like an open kidou manual.

Ichigo shifted himself so that he was sitting face to face with her.

"Rukia -- you do know that it's going to be hard, staying with me."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Of course."

He rolled her eyes back, and carried on.

"Soul Society…isn't made for these kinds of things. You should know by now."

Ichigo paused.

"And there's the matter of Byakuya."

Rukia's head didn't snap up indignantly like he expected it to, but she looked at him, slowly. She knew what he meant, and she understood his inhibitions.

"We'll work that out with Nii-sama when the time is right."

"Or I'll just go bankai on him."

She laughed, her mouth stretching smoothly into a crescent of a grin.

"Fool."

He leaned over, unable to resist, and kissed her for a second. When they parted, she narrowed her eyes and hit him half-heartedly.

"Hormonal fool."

Ichigo grinned.

"Right back at you."

Soul Society itself and Byakuya Nii-sama(_Nii_nny, more like it) wasn't much of a problem to Ichigo, anyway. He was strong; and he knew it. He would crumple Byakuya's little pink petals into a ball and throw it away, and he would cut through whoever who stood between him and Rukia.

They all knew that for a fact by now.

But…there was something else that had to be taken care of, that had to be discussed. He swallowed.

"My Hollow."

She nodded slowly, mouth pressed together.

"If it does take over me, Rukia --"

She pressed two fingers to his lips, effectively shutting him up.

"I am confident that you won't lose, Ichigo."

"But-"

She jabbed his side with an elbow, and he yelped.

"Listen to me. I know that there is a possibility that you _might_ lose. But I'm not saying that you will."

Rukia's smile was bitter. The left side of her mouth was curled, and Ichigo knew that she was thinking of Kaien-dono.

"If you lose, Ichigo -- I will not hesitate to run you through with my sword."

He relaxed, obviously relieved, and pulled her close.

"I'll ask Sandal Hat for help."

She grinned into his shoulder.

"You can do that."

---

Isshin watched his son and Rukia-san hug from the window. Both of them had been out in the woods pretty late last night, letting their hormones run free for a bit. Their rather peaky reiatsu had been _so_ hard to ignore.

It was about twelve. They would load up and leave at two in the afternoon.

Isshin had admittedly been a bit hesitant about leaving the two to their own devices; but he figured that he knew his son pretty well. Ichigo wouldn't do anything that was completely out of bounds, and plus, even if he did venture into forbidden territory, Rukia-san knew better. She would deliver the foot of justice to his poor son's, er, _manly parts_.

Isshin threw himself on the sofa and stretched out; his arms and legs dangling over the cushion covers.

"Ah."

He looked up at the wooden ceiling and grinned widely, thinking of Masaki.

"Young love."

---

They were so wrong for each other, yet so right for each other. Whatever came between them, even as friends, they would break the walls down with equal enthusiasm to get to the other.

If Ichigo was swallowed by his Hollow, Rukia would protect his pride by running her sword through his body. It would definitely hurt her and rend her heart to shreds, but she knew that it was what he wanted her to do. After all, she had _sort of _brought this upon him, but Ichigo would never hear of it.

When and if it was all over, she would go to find him in Rukongai and kiss him silly.

No matter where she went, no matter who took her away, he would go after her. Ichigo would always be following behind with Zangetsu and his bright orange hair, ready to protect her.

It drove her crazy and made her as mad as hell, but he did it anyway.

When they were together they fought with each other, and when they were apart, they fought _for _each other. There was no need for textbook romance; Ichigo and Rukia just didn't work that way.

They could be in completely opposite worlds, and they could be sitting right next to each other. It didn't really matter

It was definitely going to be hard, but no matter what the wilderness had in store for them, they knew that so long the other was out there somewhere; neither of them gave a shit.

**end.**

HOOOO. And yep, the end of The Wilderness Is Dangerous has arrived. I am actually a tad bit sad. I quite liked this story, and I'm actually quite happy about the way it turned out. please do review. I doubt there will be a sequel, but you never know. short chapter, I know. it just ended up like this (:

thanks for reading all the way :D

;redcheese


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